It’s a serious conversation that’s been had amongst historians, anthropologists, archeologists and, of course, paleontologists. It’s entirely possible that the dragon myth comes from ancient civilizations uncovering dinosaurs like the T-Rex and imagining what they believe it looked like when alive. They had no concept that it had been dead for 300 million years and didn’t exist alongside humans.
I think it’s true. Much more likely his comical stubby arms were actually bone structure for majestic wings.
stubby
majestic
Choose one.
They’re intended to be opposites. People make fun of tyrannosaurus Rex for having short stubby arms. But they wouldn’t make fun of him if they found out he was actually a dragon with majestic wings.
The problem is, wings require large bones to be bolted onto.
Clearly the fossil records are incomplete.
Is the conspiracy theory that the giant wings were eaten, and that an ancient society ate dragon wings like we eat Buffalo wings and that’s why there’s only tiny arms?
I was on the fence because of the missing wings. But, now? Now, I believe.
Who could resist delicious, battered, deep-fried dragon wings? Not I!
People “knew” about dinosaurs and giants (for the less obviously-lizardy bones) for thousands of years. A lot of them were not very far from the surface.
The idea of Dinosauria has only been around like three hundred years, so you can see why myths prevail. Personally I think Pterosaurs are much more fascinating than any fictional Dragons, but this post is about dinosaurs.
This image is slop.
Dinosaurs skeletons were thought to have come from dragons until the 1800s
I agree, it seems most folk don’t like to talk about the difference between a dragon and a wyvern
Not all dragons are wyverns, but all wyverns are dragons (depending on canonical setting, but this is true for historical myth)
Done, conversation over, and too many ignorant nerds had this conversation in the Skyrim days while vomiting out the Monster Hunter definition like it speaks for anything but Monster Hunter.
Complicated topic, but according to the nerdy Eurocentric definition:
Dragon = 4 limbs + 2 wings (6 total)
Wyvern = 2 legs + 2 wings (4 total)
Wyrm = 0 limbs/wings (Still very large, like the Tremors creatures or Sand Worms)
Technically “dragons” could have anywhere from 0 to hundreds or thousands of limbs/wings, and may or may not have the ability to fly/breathe fire/speak/possess magic/etc. depending on location, culture, and point in time.
eastern dragons dont need wings, they are more serpent like.
Wyrms could have any number of legs. Or just be the 4+2 combination because wyrm used to just mean dragon.
What if a dragon lost his front limbs in a fight or had a birth defect? Wouldn’t it be ableist of you to call it a Wyvern? They would be very upset to be called one. :(
Dragonriders of Pern?
More like Wyvernriders. Eat shit, Anne McCaffrey.
But all three fly. Right? right??
T-Rex flying around with those tiny arms/wings
Exactly, if you can do a pull-up you can’t fly
The reason I’m not ready for this conversation because I"ve heard too many Young Earth Creationists say “There are dragons in da bible, and dinosaurs kinda look like dragons! Therefore, Dinosarus didn’t die by meteor they died in da flood!”
Top is slop.
Bot is submissive, and also slop.
Skeletons got a femur in his arm.
alright… lets talk
Why aren’t they called flynosaurs?
Cuz they died
noflysaurs
Flynomores
Those are the P-Terrydactyls
So you’re saying dragons are just big chickens?
Behold! A man.
Do you think the thigh and breast muscles would be tough and gamey, or do you think it would scale similarly as chicken to turkey?
There’s probably a timeline where T-Rex was hunted to extinction like the Mammoth, or was domesticated for food like cattle, pigs, and other modern dinosaurs.
“I’d like a 20 piece dragon mcnugget with spicy cretaceous sauce please”
creationists would agree with you
just started watching forrest valkai’s latest video about this exact subject
https://youtu.be/jdRgXj522a4Welcome back to Reacteria!
If Erica had been there it would’ve been an 8 hour video, and I would’ve still watched the whole thing.
Dragon legends predate Colombus.
And are also common to hundreds of separate cultures from around the world
i think lots of those “dragons” are so vastly different, that giving them an umbrella term is nothing but an exercise in categorisation. similar how every culture has demons and gods, even though they are so vastly different.
Yup just more cultural hyperdiffusion to make simple concepts like ‘person with wing stick figure’ or ‘big scary lizard’ seem like they’re only from one source.
I’m explaining badly check out miniminuteman
