Let's talk about dragons from a scientific point of view. The real existence of dragons has already been proven by scientists! How Dragons Came to Be

It remains open: in nature, as is known, there is no such creature. Therefore, from antiquity to the present day, scientists and researchers have put forward various hypotheses about the origin of ideas about the dragon. So, some believe that the dragon arose from stylized descriptions of such real-life animals as snakes, fish, crocodiles. For example, in Banpo (Shaanxi province, Yangshao culture), an elongated snake-like fish motif appears. However, not everyone shares the theory that it was the fish that were the prototypes of the dragon.

According to another hypothesis (it is defended by the Chinese researcher He Xing), the first dragons depicted Crocodiles porous, the largest living reptile. In particular, the fact that crocodiles are very sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure and the approach of rain is used as evidence. And the dragon, as you know, commands the water element, primarily rain. Old texts also mention dragons resembling crocodiles. For example, in the "History of the [dynasty] Zhou" a certain warrior is mentioned, who was charged with the duty to kill the dragons that flooded the waters of the river near his native village; in appearance, these dragons resembled crocodiles.

A number of researchers believe that the prototypes of Chinese dragons could be such fossil reptiles as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brontosaurus or Pterodactyl, which have a certain resemblance to dragons. However, this version is also refuted: fossils do not convey the entire set of features inherent in dragons, and therefore it is unlikely that ancient people, looking at them and using them (fossils were widely used, in particular, in Chinese medicine), could reconstruct the appearance of prehistoric giants that disappeared long ago. before the rise of mankind.

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A fairly common version is that the dragon appeared as a result of the combination of totems of various tribes as a result of their merger. The coiled snake or dragon form played an important role in early Chinese culture. The legendary progenitors of the Chinese nation Fu Xi (伏羲, according to Chinese historiography ruled from 2852 to 2737 BC) and Nu Wa (女媧, Fu Xi's wife and sister) are often depicted with intertwined snake tails. It is believed that it was the snake that was the totem of the legendary Yellow Emperor - Huangdi (黃帝, allegedly ruled from 2697 to 2597, or from 2698 to 2598 BC). According to legend, when Huangdi conquered other tribes, he attached their totem to his own; this explains why the dragon combines the features of various animals.

Some researchers also point to a certain similarity between Chinese dragons and Indian dragons. nagas- dragon-shaped serpents, considered the patrons of Buddhism. Nagas have a human face, snake tail, and like dragons were divided into heavenly, divine, earthly and underground.

Another view of the origin of dragons is that the concept of dragons was created during the development of primitive agriculture and reflects the aspirations of the first farmers of China. Thus, Zhou Chongfa, an archaeologist and vice director of the Hubei Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration, believes that the prototype of the dragon was lightning, and the Chinese pronunciation of the word dragon is moons, resembles the natural sound of thunder. As agriculture and cattle breeding came to the fore, relegating hunting and fishing to the background, people turned to divine forces, praying for good weather so that the harvest would ripen. And gradually the figurative figure of the dragon was created as an agricultural divine force.

As for the version of the dragon as a combination of various totems, then, according to Zhou Chongfa, it seems unlikely that representatives of even defeated tribes would allow their sacred totems to be mixed with others. Primitive agriculture depended on the rains, and therefore primitive people worshiped many creatures living in the water, such as carps or crocodiles. And gradually their features were added to the image of the dragon. The ancestors of the Chinese created regional variations of dragons, endowing them with the features of certain animals. Thus, people who lived along the Liaohe River in northeastern China added the features of a boar to the image of the dragon; in Central China, a cow-dragon appeared, in Shanxi - a snake-dragon, etc. gradually developed a holistic image of the dragon, passing from generation to generation and spread throughout China.

Thus, whatever the real origin of the idea of ​​the dragon - as a combination of totems, the image of fossil reptiles, or the expression of lightning, one thing is clear - gradually the dragon became one of the main ones.

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Many fairy tales, medieval sagas and even Russian epics tell about dragons or flying fire-breathing snakes, distinguished by enviable invulnerability. The body of these monsters was covered with armor-scales, and instead of severed heads, new ones grew ... (website)

The question arises: how true are such legends? Did such monsters really exist, or were they created by the rich imagination of our ancestors?.. What do modern scientists think about this?

Dragon legends are ubiquitous

You will surely agree that the legends of any nation are very different from the myths and legends of other ethnic groups. Each epic sings of its heroes, each of them has its own villains ... The exception is dragons, which are narrated both in the West and in the East ...

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It should be noted that the eastern dragon looks like a giant winged snake (by the way, our “homegrown” Serpent Gorynych is like that), the western one is a fire-breathing evil monster of enormous size, which is more like a dinosaur.

It must be admitted that the descriptions of dragons throughout are quite realistic. It seems that both the ancient Hellenes and the knights of the Middle Ages no-no yes met with armored winged reptiles spitting fire. From whom did they draw a portrait? ..

The first ones that come to mind are the large reptiles of the Mesozoic era. According to scientists, among them were flying species. By the way, pterosaurs reached a wingspan of ten meters!..

Amazing properties of dragons

Modern researchers in aerodynamics doubt that pterosaurs could take to the air or even glide. However, there is a hypothesis that at that distant time the Earth's atmosphere was denser than now, and therefore it was easier to fly. And by the way, today's scientists do not even know many of the "aerodynamic secrets" of modern insects, what can we say about dragons! ..

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But the fact that the bodies of these creatures were covered with scales of bone plates, which neither arrows nor spears pierced, is very similar to the truth. Remember how fairy-tale heroes, fighting dragons, tried to hit them in vulnerable places, for example, hit them on a relatively thin neck.

But the same tales tell us that severed dragon heads immediately grew back or grew back. Could this be?.. Let's remember lizards (by the way, also reptiles) with their ability to grow lost tails... Or crabs that restore claws torn off in fights... Or vine snails that grow new heads instead of cut ones!.. But there are among animals are real champions in self-healing. So, if an earthworm is cut into pieces, a whole organism will grow from each fragment. And the hydra is able to recover even after it is passed through a meat grinder! ..

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Based on this, it is not difficult to assume that once on our planet there were organisms that were distinguished by an increased ability to regenerate. It is unlikely, of course, that their cut off parts could grow back as rapidly as it is said in fairy tales. But let this exaggeration remain on the conscience of the warriors themselves, who thus gave more weight to their own exploits ...

Why do dragons need fire breath?

This question is more difficult to answer, although you can also try. Of course, these creatures need a fiery stream not at all to fry their prey. As you know, predators eat raw meat. However, let's approach this issue in a different way. We know that all reptiles are cold-blooded: their body temperature is completely dependent on the ambient temperature.

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This means that in order for a giant reptile to always remain mobile and strong (like a dragon), it needs an internal stove, a kind of chemical reactor that would warm the body through exothermic reactions.

Let us recall the famous bombardier beetle, which synthesizes and accumulates the initial substances for such a reaction in separate cavities of its body. For a beetle, such a device is an excellent defense against enemies. And the fiery stream would not allow the dragon to freeze. With such autonomous heating, reptiles would become both more mobile and smarter, because we sometimes accuse even snakes of cunning and deceit. What can we say about creatures like dragons? ..

Where did dragons come from and where did they go?

Yes, I want to, oh how I want to believe that the terrible ones are not a fairy tale at all, but a real exciting story ... But here's the question: where did the dragon skeletons go? The remains of dinosaurs have been found in abundance (although they lived on earth much earlier), and who has ever found the remains of a dragon? ..

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The conclusion suggests itself that legends about dragons are akin to stories about Nessie, the elusive Bigfoot and other amazing creatures, which, as many today believe, come into our reality from parallel dimensions. So, these intelligent monsters could have any qualities and properties.

There is, however, another theory - attributing alien origin to dragons. However, neither one nor the other version answers a very interesting question for us: why did all the encounters with dragons remain in the past for humanity? For example, Bigfoot appears in our world so far, as, indeed, aliens from other planets ...

dragons- flying fire-breathing lizards. Dragons in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire are associated with magic. At the beginning of the saga in Westeros and Essos, they are considered extinct - dragons disappeared from Essos along with the Doom of Valyria, and in Westeros they began to degenerate after the Dance of the Dragons. Remaining colossal skeletons and fossilized eggs serve as a reminder of their existence. By the end of The Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen manages to hatch three dragons from the eggs, but in Westeros, until recently, the news of the birth of these creatures is only a rumor.

Dragon Viserion © Chris Burdett

Dragon scales are painted in bright colors, usually with a metallic sheen. Horns, spine, belly, fly bones, membranes and other parts can also be painted in different colors.

The dragon is extremely difficult to kill - in an adult dragon, strong scales cover the entire body, including the belly. The only vulnerable point is the eyes and the brain behind them, and not the belly or throat, as some legends say. "Death comes out of the dragon's mouth," wrote Septon Barth in his Unnatural History, "but death does not enter that way."

Physiology

Many times longer than a man, if, of course, to believe the songs ... - Ser Jorah shrugged. “But in the Seven Kingdoms, the dragons of House Targaryen are best known. They were raised for war, and they died in the war.
The dragon is not easy to kill, but still possible.<…>
- Balerion Black Dread was two hundred years old when he died - this happened in the reign of Jaehaerys the Appeaser. It was so large that it could swallow a bison whole. A dragon never stops growing, Your Majesty, as long as it has food and will.<….>
- Will? Dany asked. Are they kept free?
“Your ancestors built a huge, domed castle in King's Landing for their dragons called the Dragonpit. It still stands on Rhaenys Hill, but now it is only ruins. There the royal dragons lived in the open. Thirty mounted knights could pass through the iron doors of this castle in a row. But with all that, it was noticed that none of these dragons had grown up to their ancestors. The maesters say the walls and ceiling are to blame.

A Storm of Swords, Daenerys I

Dragons eat meat, and only fried. Apparently, they digest food like ordinary animals: in The Vicious Prince, a "heap of dragon excrement" is mentioned. It is not known how common cannibalism is among dragons, but they may attack each other. During the time of the Dance of the Dragons, there lived a dragon called Cannibal, who fed on eggs, cubs and the corpses of deceased relatives. Such behavior appears to have been exceptional, however, after killing Moon Dancer, Sunfire also devoured her remains.

However, dragon breeding appears to be bisexual: during the war between Rhaenyra and Aegon II, Silverwing and Vermitor are known to "intertwine" with each other, and Tessarion and Seasmoke, instead of fighting, performed actions that can be considered a courtship dance.

Dragons live for a very long time - decades and even centuries. The oldest known dragon in Westeros, Balerion, lived for about two hundred years, and during this time he reached a size that "could swallow a whole bison, and maybe a hairy mammoth." Vhagar at the time of his death in an air battle over God's Eye was 181 years old; she almost reached the size of Balerion. The newborn dragons were the size of a skinny cat. Following them, the Targaryens brought the skulls of their former dragons, and the oldest of these skulls was over 3000 years old. The two most recent skulls, about the size of a mastiff, belonged to the last dragons from Dragonstone, who died shortly after birth. On the contrary, the skulls of long-lived dragons, including Balerion, were monstrous in size. Dragons need food and freedom to grow.

dragon eggs

Three eggs of Daenerys in the series "Game of Thrones"

Dragons lay eggs. Compared to the gigantic size of adult dragons, their eggs are surprisingly small, about the size of a human head. However, they are heavy as a rock. The egg shell is covered with many tiny scales, similar in texture to polished metal. The eggs differ in color, tone, and luster, and their coloring matches that of the dragon that is about to hatch from the egg.

One egg was a deep green with golden flecks that came and went depending on how she turned it. The other was pale yellow with red stripes. The last one, black as the midnight sea, looked alive, scarlet curls and waves ran through it. Game of Thrones, Daenerys II

Dragons seem to lay eggs very rarely - only a small number of dragon eggs are known, and after the extinction of dragons, these eggs have become almost priceless rarities. There is no specific time period for which the egg must hatch; eggs can be stored for decades and even centuries before they hatch into a dragon.

Dragon fire is very bright. In A Dance with Dragons, Quentin notes that the flame in Viserion's mouth shone a hundred times brighter than his torch, and eyewitnesses of the battle between Sunfire and Moondancer recalled that at one moment the fire of the dragon of King Aegon II was like a second sun in its brightness. Dragonfire glows in colors that are not typical of ordinary fire. Black, dull white, blue, orange, red, gold, cobalt, black-red, golden-orange, and red-yellow colors of dragonfire appeared in the books.

It is known that rain can put out the fire of a dragon.

Behavior

There are legends that the dragonlords of Valyria controlled their dragons with restraining spells and magic horns, however, there is a case when a word was enough - so Daenerys subdued Drogon. Even feral dragons know their names.

Daenerys Targaryen before riding Drogon © Marc Simonetti

In the Targaryen family, it was believed that only the carriers of the Targaryen blood - whether they were legitimate children or bastards (dragon offspring) - could control dragons, dragons simply would not let other people in. However, it is not known whether this is true: during the Dance of the Dragons, Nettle, a simple peasant girl of unknown origin, who does not have any signs of a Valyrian appearance, became the mistress of the dragon Sheepstealer. Martin, when asked by readers about "three dragon heads", that is, three dragon riders, Daenerys Targaryen answered "the third dragon head does not have to be Targaryen".

I only know about dragons what my brother told me when I was little, and I read a few other things in books. But it was said that Aegon the Conqueror never dared to ride Vhagar or Miraxes, and his sisters never mounted a Balerion of the Black Dread. Dragons live longer than humans, some hundreds of years, so Balerion had other riders after Aegon died... but no rider in history has ever flown two dragons. Dance with Dragons, Daenerys

Dragons and Magic

History

Origin and settlement

The Valyrians considered dragons to be the product of a chain of volcanoes known as the Fourteen Fires. Some ancient Asshai texts say that dragons came out of the Fade. The same texts tell of the first dragonlords - a very ancient forgotten people who brought dragons from the Fade to Valyria, where they taught their art to the Valyrians.

According to Martin, "once upon a time there were dragons everywhere". Dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib itself, and as far south as the jungles of Sotorios. Dragon remains have also been found in Westeros. There is also other evidence of the existence of dragons in Westeros: many legends have survived, such as the story of Servin Mirrorshield, and dragons are present on the coat of arms of one of the noble houses.

Dragons in Valyria

About five thousand years before the events of the books, the Valyrians - a humble tribe of shepherds who herd their goats in the mountains of the Fourteen Fires - managed to tame dragons. It is not known for certain how they managed to do this, but the Valyrians themselves claimed their kinship with dragons: according to their legends, the Valyrian people descended directly from dragons, unlike all other people, and are blood relatives of these winged creatures. Dragons became the backbone of Valyria's military power, allowing her to crush other empires and states. In big wars, Valyria could put hundreds of dragons on the battlefield at the same time - for example, to fight the Rhoynar army of Garin the Great, Valyria sent three hundred or more dragons to the walls of Volantis

Valyria itself was ruled by forty aristocratic families, each of which owned dragons. However, five hundred years before Z.E. the mainland of Valyria was hit by a cataclysm. Fire and lava during it erupted so intensely and high from the earth that, in addition to the state of the Valyrians, they also destroyed their dragons in the sky. A few dragons remained off the mainland, in the Free Cities, along with their overlords, but were killed in revolts. However, the dragons still continued to exist, thanks to the fact that one of the noble Valyrian families, twelve years before the Rock of Valyria, moved with five of his dragons to an island off the east coast of Westeros. These were the Targaryens.

Targaryen dragons

Balerion and Vhagar in Dorne © Michael Komarck

Thus, House Targaryen became the only family of dragonlords in the world. They called themselves dragons and said that dragon fire was dissolved in their blood. The coat of arms of the Targaryens, taken already in Westeros, depicted a red three-headed dragon on a black field (in reality, many-headed dragons do not exist). Of the five dragons that left Valyria, only one survived to the Conquest of Westeros, Balerion; however, on Dragonstone, new dragons hatched from eggs. Three dragons (Balerion, Vhagar and Meraxes) participated in the battles of Aegon's Conquest, after which the Targaryens began to rule in Westeros. In the war with the Dornish, the Targaryens lost Meraxes, and during the confrontation between Maegor and his nephew, the dragon was killed. Under King Maegor, construction began on the Dragonpit, which in the future will become the abode of the dragons located in King's Landing.

At the time of Viserys I's accession to the throne, a total of twenty dragons of different ages and sizes lived in the Dragonpit in King's Landing and on the island of Dragonstone - some had Targaryen riders, some did not, some, like Sheepstealer and Cannibal, did grow wild and did not let people in.

During the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, the warring members of House Targaryen willingly used dragons against each other, so it's not surprising that most dragons died in the war, mostly fighting each other. Several dragons kept in the Dragonpit at the end of 130 were killed by a mob of rebellious townspeople; Cannibal and Sheepstealer disappeared - the first flew off Dragonstone in an unknown direction, the second supposedly settled in the Moon Mountains with his mistress Nettle. Silverwing, the last old dragon, was left without a rider and nestled at the Scarlet Lake - no one could tame her. Thus, by the end of the Dance of Dragons in 131, Aegon III Targaryen had at his disposal only one and only dragon Morning, which belonged to Reyna Targaryen - a cub that hatched from an egg shortly before the war.

True, there were a large number of dragon eggs left on Dragonstone - at least one or two more hatched later. Tyrion Lannister mentioned among the nineteen skulls that were kept in the Red Keep, two the skulls of the last dragons hatched on Dragonstone - "a couple no bigger than mastiff skulls, strange ugly remains". Arlan of Pennytree saw the last dragon - it was "a female, small, green and stunted, with drooping wings"; it is not clear if it was Morning or not. The last dragon died in AC 153, while Aegon III was still on the throne. She managed to lay five eggs, but none of them hatched. King Aegon III received the undeserved and unfair nickname Dragonbane - there were rumors that he harbored a hatred for dragons and poisoned the last of these creatures himself: once before his eyes, Aegon II Targaryen fed Aegon III's mother Rhaenyra to his dragon. However, Maester Marvin hinted that the learned maesters of the Citadel might be involved in the extinction of the dragons:

Who do you think killed all the dragons at one time? Dragonslayers with swords? In the world that the Citadel creates, there is no place for magic, prophecy and glass candles, and even more so for dragons. Feast of Crows, Samwell V

Dragons Daenerys Targaryen

Known dragons

It turns out that dragons - mysterious monsters with the body of a snake, the wings of a bird, with several heads, fiery breath, endowed with reason - still live among us!

Great and terrible

According to one ancient description, dated 600 AD. e., the dragon is “the largest of the snakes and in general the largest of all creatures living on Earth. It has a large muzzle and narrow blowholes through which it breathes and protrudes its tongue."

Dragons were usually depicted as huge snake-like monsters, terrifying people. From their roar, they say, the earth trembled. Moreover, dragons eating human flesh always swallowed beautiful maidens whole, which is why both heroes and knights considered it a matter of honor to slay the monster on the spot.

However, our ancestors were real philosophers. Tired of being afraid of fire-breathing monsters, they simply turned them into a common symbol of water and fire. Historians have gone a little further. According to the hypothesis of scientists A. Leroy-Gouran and V. Ya. Propp, the dragon is a symbol of the unification of the worlds: the upper one (as evidenced by its resemblance to a bird) and the lower one (snake body).

Only these monsters were not so terrible. There are cases when they went in peace to people. So, in ancient Chinese mythology, the winged dragon helped the hero Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, lay channels for water supply with his tail. The monster also helped two Slavic blacksmiths. They harnessed the dragon to the plow and with its help dug the channel of the Dnieper. And Nikita Kozhemyaka managed to pacify the Serpent Gorynych and plow the land on it. Moreover, dragons often gave people the treasures they guarded. True, ungrateful people usually killed them out of fear. Only the Flying Serpent Obtained from the Volga sub-ethnos of the Katskari always remained alive, as it brought wealth to those who were not afraid of hard work.

By the way, until now, many of the descendants of katskars, in order to lure the Serpent of Luck, put a saucer of milk on the windowsill.
Considering that the word is material, and myths always have a real basis, we can safely assume that the images of such monsters were hardly created from scratch. This is confirmed by many scientists! Recently, researchers of the International Union of Cryptozoologists made an unexpected and sensational conclusion: on the coat of arms of Moscow, George the Victorious pierces a real (!) Small winged dragon with a spear, and not a mythical one! In general, ancient Russian icon painting is full of monsters of various colors - blood-red, with puffs of fire flying out of their mouths, and very tiny ones, which are led on a leash like a domestic dog. Irina Tsareva, head of the scientific environmental program RICAN (Russian Intellectual Corps of Current Scientific Areas), believes that these animals could well live in Russian forests. Let the authors of epics, epics and icons exaggerate the images of their works a little, but they still used real stories as a basis. It is quite possible that in the European part of Russia there were still bloodthirsty monsters tearing travelers to shreds. In any case, such cases were recorded in the documents! So, in one collection of Russian chronicles there is news from Novgorod from 1582: “... In the summer, corcodiles of luthi came out of the river and closed the way, many people ate, and people were terrified and praying to God all over the earth. And packs are hidden, and others are beaten ... ”Since crocodiles have never been found in Russia, scientists have suggested that the chronicler had in mind an ordinary dragon.

However, even today there is a lot of evidence of monsters. So, in 1958, the geologist, paleontologist and writer Ivan Efremov, in his book “The Road of the Winds,” spoke about his trip to Mongolia, where, according to the descriptions of local residents, there is a monstrous yellow worm, Olgoi-Khorkhoi, from whose poison people die. There have always been many scientific expeditions in these parts, but no one has been able to give intelligible answers to the question: “What kind of worm is this?” The French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal once suggested that the olgoi-khorkhoy is a giant reptile that lost its paws during evolution and is capable of spraying poison from a distance ...

Russia is also full of eyewitnesses of encounters with dragons. For example, in the Lipetsk, Novgorod and Leningrad regions, rumors periodically roam about encounters with underwater monsters spewing flames from their mouths. Ukraine is also not far behind. Not the first year, rumors about the Black Sea monster at the foot of Karadag excite the imagination. Dragons and giant snakes seem to be regularly encountered in Africa. The stories of Africans about the ferocious predator "tonpondrano" ("master of sea waters") with a body covered with scales and 25 meters long are impressive. In the Algerian desert, a 20-meter creature was also somehow shot. There are frightening legends about the "master of the forests" of Madagascar - a monster with an elongated body and huge claws. In general, stories about modern monsters can be continued for a very long time, but there is still convincing evidence of their existence!

We say - a dragon, we mean - azhdarchid

For example, in Southeast Asia, on several Indonesian islands, the Komodo dragon lives - the largest lizard on Earth. These huge monitor lizards reach a length of three meters and feed on monkeys and goats. Their ancestors lived on Earth 2 million years ago. Their descendants in the same form live perfectly today, not even suspecting that, according to Darwin, they must have undergone some evolutionary changes.

By the way, other living fossils (phylogenetic relics) have been preserved on the same islands, almost completely corresponding to extinct ones tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. This, for example, tuatara, or tuatara, is the only living representative of the subclass of beak-headed reptiles. Its discovery came as a big surprise to scientists.

Despite the fact that it is customary to consider dragons to be predatory flying reptiles, and modern lizards (lizards, iguanas, agaves, chameleons, and so on) to be their descendants that have become smaller and have forgotten how to fly, this is absolutely not the case. Of course, paleobiology considers lizards to be the most adapted animal species in the planet's biosphere, and not younger, but older than dinosaurs! True, those lizards that lived next to dinosaurs in ancient times never flew. Unlike pterosaurs, who have learned to do it masterfully. Even despite their bulky body (the largest weighed 300 kg, and the wingspan reached 15 m). True, why and how they flew is still a mystery to scientists. Nevertheless, such creatures really reigned in the sky of our planet for almost 200 million years in a row. And while scientists have not fully figured out whether they were reptiles.

By the way, when by the middle of the Cretaceous period (90 million years ago) pterosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth, the planet was dominated by the family of azhdarchids - the largest flying lizards in the history of the Earth. Giants with a long neck planned at a speed of up to 40 km / h, grabbed gaping game with a powerful mouth and swallowed it whole. It is possible that the legends about dragons came from them. Interestingly, paleobiologists call the last azhdarchids Quetzalcoatl. This is how the Mayan Indians christened their sacred Serpent, with which many mythological plots are also associated. However, according to the definition of paleontologists, these mysterious creatures completely died out about 65 million years ago. I wonder who the Indians saw, who lived much later than the flying yashers?

Paleontologists have suggested that flying kites were either supplanted by more advanced creatures ideally adapted to flight (birds), or they died out from a global cooling of the climate that happened exactly 65 million years ago. Only, according to scientists, some individuals could still survive, which is why they became the prototype of dragons and flying kites in Indian culture. And flying lizards could descend from heaven to earth and move on to a sedentary lifestyle. Interestingly, late pterosaurs are remarkably similar to modern pelicans, which is why the latter are often even called small pterosaurs.

So, by and large, you should not be surprised if one day, while picking mushrooms in the forest or swimming in the river, a cute dragon jumps out to meet you. Science allows this possibility. “The absence of finds does not mean at all that such animals did not exist and do not exist, but only that it was not possible to find traces of their presence on the planet,” says Alexander Dubrov, Doctor of Biological Sciences (Russia).

In any case, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, an employee of the Institute of Oceanology. Shirshov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also admits the possibility that flying lizards really lived in forgotten times, and their relatives could well have survived somewhere: “The monsters described in ancient texts existed and can actually exist.” For example, “the prehistoric lobe-finned coelacanth fish. For a long time it was believed that this species became extinct 200-300 million years ago, but quite by accident in the 1990s the fish was caught off the coast of South Africa. It is amazing that for many millions of years it has not changed much, although it has become smaller. The structure of her skeleton is identical to that of her ancestors who lived 200 million years ago.”

And yet they were!

But Alexei Rozanov, academician, director of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, breaks down the version of the real existence of dragons to smithereens: “Dragons are mythological creatures (...) they look like lizards and birds at the same time, but this cannot be already because lizards are reptiles, and birds are warm-blooded. Here pterosaurs are another matter. They are “mysterious creatures about which we know very little, but it is clear that their active flight was possible only if they reached a sufficiently high metabolic rate, and this is an argument in favor of their warm-bloodedness. Today, scientists tend to conclude that dinosaurs in general - at least their flying species - were not reptiles. It is quite possible that it was warm-bloodedness that killed the flying lizards. Reptiles, as it turned out, are better adapted to changing conditions of existence (proof - living fossil species - cold-blooded lizards and crocodiles). However, in the cave paintings of the primitive people of Australia, an image of a dragon-like creature is often found. Paleontologists confirm that this is a megalania, a large monitor-like lizard that once lived on the continent. Only cryptozoologists are absolutely sure that this reptile still leads the life of a hermit in the thick of the Australian bushes. Eyewitnesses described megalania as a 4-6 meter monitor lizard with huge claws and a brown spotted body color. Although the dragon scares the Australians, he always behaves not aggressively. Or maybe there are simply no witnesses to his bad temper? But the bones of megalania remain. They are still found in various places. Although paleontologists have not yet discovered a complete skeleton, about 80% of the skeleton of the Australian dragon has already been collected from fragments.

But astrologers sincerely believe that dragons are real and incredibly powerful! Only they live not in the real, but in the astral world! But we are always ready to help in everything! A friendly dragon will always become the protector of the house, allow you to look into the future and allow you to use your inexhaustible energy. That is why people have come up with many rituals to direct the dragon's power in the direction they need.

According to D. J. Conway, an American writer, dragons help a person to gather his inner strength, successfully resist the imposed control, negative psychological programming and get rid of the pressure of people who cause mental pain. By the way, the followers of the Fae tradition, a pagan system of myths based on the lunar Celtic calendar of Beth-Louis-Nyon trees, also speak of the existence and power of dragons.

According to their idea, dragons have a body and are everywhere, literally, in every object. Any action can be the result of dragon power. However, it is believed that dragons do not interfere in the affairs of people, considering them to be lower-minded creatures. Only when something terrible threatens a person, only then the dragon will intervene and will definitely help. By the way, some dragons love to communicate with children, especially with those endowed with psychic abilities.

And since living dragons have not yet been recorded either on the ocean floor or in the impenetrable jungle, it can be assumed that they could well hide somewhere ...

legends about dragons- the most common monster tales on our planet. The creepy monstrous reptile has found its place in the folklore of almost all peoples of the world. At the same time, judging by some literary and musical works, this creature was perceived more as a real monster than as a character in myths.

Edward Topsell in his History of the Reptiles (1608) reported: "Among all the species of reptiles, there is not one comparable to the dragon or one that can provide sufficient historical material to reveal the essence and nature of this animal."

When you analyze the "true stories" about dragons in the folklore or written records of some cultures, the questions immediately arise: why are dragons everywhere so similar? Did dragons really fly over the earth and devour the unfortunate villagers, while demanding the sacrifice of young girls and instilling terror in every heart? And is it true that no one but a brave knight could stop them?

Which of us has not seen the icon where St. George the Victorious kills the dragon? And on the other hand, what child has not read fairy tales about lazy and kind, gentle and timid dragons?

In every myth there is a piece of truth and reality. Many serious scientists adhere to the theory that a small number of dinosaurs could have survived into the human era. Pick up any book about dinosaurs and you will see that, for example, a royal tyrannosaurus rex could be an excellent dragon in some legend. Such a huge reptile plodding along the fringes of early Europe would certainly fit even the most impressive descriptions of dragons.

Today, no one says that there were a lot of dinosaurs. But the handful of these prehistoric reptiles, which lived in remote lakes and forested valleys, could not have gone unnoticed even in sparsely populated Europe in the 1500s BC. e. A meeting with just one of these "monsters" would give rise to legends and traditions for centuries to come.

The following theory may be of more interest to the average reader: the fact is that ancient historians often described huge python-like snakes that reached more than 15 meters in length. Many stories about dragons that have come down to us from the Middle Ages tell how these creatures wrap around their prey and slowly crush it, which is fully consistent with the behavior of a python or boa constrictor.

But all these theories do not explain why the dragon can move on four limbs.

Some species of giant lizard would probably fit the description of a dragon and would satisfy many theorists. One of them is known as the Komodo dragon, which often exceeds 3.5 meters in length, but it lives in Eastern India.

It would have taken St. George the Victorious and the other dragon slayers a long time - in terms of Western history - for a perilous trip to the tropics. Probably, the battle with the dragon itself would have been a much lesser test than such a campaign.

If in Europe there did exist such a species of lizard (presumably several million years ago) that survived to the appearance of man, this would be the solution to the mystery of the origin of dragon myths.

A third theory—and a very plausible one—suggests that a medieval adventurer accidentally discovered a cave filled with the bones of a giant cave bear and mistook them for the skeletal remains of a dragon. It happened that even workers who dug pits during the construction of churches found fossilized bones of dinosaurs.

It was only in the 19th century that pundits realized that the age of fossil remains is often estimated at millions of years (before that, it was believed that the skeletons found belong to some giant animals that died out quite recently).

If, at a time when dragon legends were at the peak of popularity in Europe, the remains of a fossil were found in the ground or in a cave, the existence of fabulous monsters would certainly have been proven.

Now let's try to independently develop a theory according to which the peasants, digging a well, found mammoth bones in the ground. The diggers immediately concluded that this was the grave of a dragon. Well, where there are the remains of one, there may well be another, a living dragon! The inhabitants of the village must have been tormented by the question: how to get rid of a huge beast - so that it does not fly in and devour them all to one? We need a sacrifice! The priest said that this does not work on the dragon, but it can propitiate the ancient gods!

The peasants chose a young beauty, took her into a dark forest and tied her to a tree, hoping in this way to appease the dragon. It is hard to imagine all the horror that the girl experienced when wolves or bears attacked her at night ... The next day, the most daring village peasants went to the forest. The way it is! The dragon flew in and ate the girl!

A month passed - it turned out that the victim "worked": the monster did not appear in the village, it did not hunt the locals. So the girl's flesh appeased him. If they continued to offer sacrifice from time to time, even if it was a calf or a goat, the dragon would leave them alone.

It is possible that in Europe such bones - be it a mammoth, a Sumatran rhinoceros or a giant cave bear - were not considered something unusual. Mammoth tusks are very common in medieval recipes for the elixir of love. On the market square of the Austrian city of Klagenfurt stands a statue of a giant slaying a dragon; the head of this monster, apparently, was molded in the shape of the skull of the Sumatran rhinoceros.

Evidence of this connection is the fact that the ancient manuscripts mention the "dragon skull" found in Klagenfurt in the 16th century. All these long years the skull has been under the protection of the city government, and today it can be easily identified as the skeleton of the head of an Ice Age rhinoceros.