When it comes to dragons, the human imagination has been stuck in one gear for centuries.whether Ron chinese astrology dragon, Fafnir Like Viking legends, JRR Tolkien’s Smaug, or Westeros’ Flesh of Fire, the formulas for flight, ferocity, and volcanic breath remain largely unchanged. What are these storytellers up to?

HBO new drama House of the Dragon We pestered some of the reptile and dinosaur experts to share their scientific interpretations of these magical hellbeasts.

Paleontology writers such as Riley Black, PopSci

of House of the Dragon Reptiles look pretty silly to me. They are the standard Western dragons we are all familiar with, and are almost all of the same shape, possibly of the same species, and differ only as much as two Komodo dragons. I was hoping to see some of the many other forms that dragons have taken in mythology and folklore in a show that does. With antlers and fish fins.

of game of thrones, flame reignWhen dragon heartSome of these traits are more plausible than others. Giant reptiles soared through the skies and grew large enough to travel between continents. Quetzalcoatlus It was a pterosaur with a wingspan of about 33 feet. That’s pretty impressive, especially considering this flyer was the same height as the giraffe on the ground. Also, because it flew on wings with an elastic membrane on its ring finger, it was very close to the realm of conventional dragons. of course, Quetzalcoatlus It was fairly light for its size, about 200 pounds. House of the Dragon The stars look a little too big to float in the air. Pterosaur bones were paper-thin and far more fragile creatures than the beefy dragons on television.

Fire is a trickier one. Some insects, like the bombardier beetle, spew out chemicals that combine to burn their attackers. That could be an evolutionary route a proto-dragon could take. After all, many snakes and lizards produce venom. I suspect there may be a pathway through which the venom becomes more corrosive or takes on a different nature, with appropriate adaptations in the mouth and throat to avoid burning or harming the reptile itself. But not surprisingly here, actual fire-breathing is a complete illusion, and there is no biological pathway by which such death-breath could have evolved.

if House of the Dragon CGI designers are looking for inspiration, and fossil records have many options. Mosasaurus, for example, was closer than ever to a “sea dragon.” These marine reptiles were related to monitor lizards. Some of them grew over 50 feet long and had tail fins and streamlined scales. were eating each other.of Spinosaurus —It has a sail along its back and a crocodile-like nose and paddle tail. Deinocheirus—It is a huge herbivore with huge claws on its arms, a hump on its back, and a duck-like face. It looks like a dragon too.

i’m just happy House of the Dragon The reptile is technically a wyvern, having two hind legs and arms as wings rather than four legs and an additional pair of wings. The second interpretation is technically hexapodal, and to create another pair of appendages that can change into wings, some sort of gene duplication event occurred, as happened in our own fish ancestors. Is required. No vertebrate has ever done this. Targaryen dragons, even though they’re too big and spewing fire, have more evolutionary implications, albeit fanciful.

Herpetologist Earyn McGee, founder of #FindThatLizard

Dragons are very similar to lizards. There are many already named after dragons. However, they play the role of large reptiles and predators, such as the Komodo and Nile monitor lizards, and perform their functions in the ecosystem. If there is water, they swim and hunt native fish. But when the water dries, it takes on a more terrestrial condition. I could easily see them undulating.

Lizards are generally interesting, as are dragons. People think they only eat insects, but they can be pollinators.In the Galapagos, there are marine iguanas that dive into the sea and eat seaweed. And then there are carnivores that eat birds, eggs, and other lizards.

In the southwestern United States is the Yarrow spiny lizard, which features beautiful scales and a dragon-like design. There are also Gila monsters with beaded scales and poisonous bites. You can’t get any closer to the dragon.

Marine reptiles were sea dragons that evolved rapidly in the ocean during the Mesozoic Era (256-61 million years ago). For example, ichthyosaurs, long-necked and short-necked plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs were diverse top predators with several morphological adaptations for locomotion and feeding. Sea dragons were toothy and efficient swimmers, reaching 45 to 60 feet in length and catering to a wide variety of sizes and ecosystems. Some were highly specialized cutters, crushers, piercers, crunchers, and smashers that are part of complex trophic networks not found in modern marine ecosystems. The tail (flattened or fluked) or paddle-like fins were used. Others had fish-like bodies and specialized flippers for swimming and hunting. In terms of reproduction, sea dragons gave birth to live offspring rather than laying eggs on land.

If dragons were real, I’d imagine they would live in very attractive marine ecosystems, much like the early Cretaceous seas, and “fly” across continental seas teeming with prehistoric creatures. Pliosaurs don’t need to breathe fire underwater to end a fight, as Pliosaurs possessed the highest bite force of any known animal and could swallow a person with a single bite.

Kai Wang, Herpetologist, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Mythical dragons are a very diverse group of creatures. Distinct types exist that specialize in different environments and have different morphological adaptations, depending on their habitat and range of distribution. For example, species adapted to terrestrial deserts may have flattened bodies to fit into rock crevices. Plateau species may be smaller in size with disproportionately short limbs and tails to adapt to high altitudes. Tropical arboreal species may have uniquely strong claws and much longer limbs and tails. And finally, flying species may have a slender figure.

Natural History Foundation paleontologist Sebastian Apestegia

Depends on what you call a dragon. There have been many dragon-like animals in Earth’s history. There are also very large reptiles that resemble the great monitor lizards of today’s eastern hemisphere. There are no physical remains, but the others were clearly not lizards.giant sister snake Tren Tren When Kai Kai From the Mapuche legend probably came from real dinosaur bones in Chile and Argentina. Mokele Mbembe The Congolese is proposed to be a living sauropod dinosaur, apparently not a lizard. But there is still no evidence beyond oral tradition.

Remember, dragons were constructed in mythology as humans evolved. However, a large flying fire-breathing dragon probably didn’t exist.