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.
It really makes sense. Another one is that when they uncovered skulls of ancient mastodons, they though they were the skulls of Cyclops, because the trunk is located over a giant nasal/sinus opening in the skull, that they assumed was a single eye socket. If you had never seen, or even heard of, a creature with a trunk, a Cyclops would be the obvious assumption.
I’ve always thought the same thing
A man of culture, I see
It is weird for them to guess it was a reptile of some kind though. How would they know that? By comparing to other contemporary reptile skeletons? That seems very advanced.
That has always struck me as odd. And humans and dinosaurs have never existed at the same time so it’s not a question of old legends filtering down.
Yes I know birds are technically dinosaurs please don’t comment to correct me on that.
It looks like a giant lizard skull so all they need to make the link is dead lizard skeletons to refer to?
There have been fossils discovered with their skin intack (fossilized). So maybe early people discovered the T-rex with its wings intact, but they didn’t preserve the fossi,l so proof was lost.
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.
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!
other way around. they liked giant thigh, bred the t rexes so their cheeks clap when they walk
Tiny wings~
1st thing I thought of was Dragon Tales lol
That’s a wyvern, not a dragon! Fake and gay! FAKE AND GAY!
The T Rex skelly looks like it’s pondering or shooting some anime pose
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.
what if they were made of cartilage
Technically insects don’t use wings supported by bones or cartilage, but physics works differently at their size anyway. There are flying fish and apparently also gliding lizards, namely Draco lizards, and gliding geckos and frogs — but afaik none of these can do sustained flight.
Then they wouldn’t have the rigidity necessary for flight
Wings still have bone structure.
Clearly the fossil records are incomplete.
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.
I dont care I hunt them both with my gunlance
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.
Wyrms could have any number of legs. Or just be the 4+2 combination because wyrm used to just mean dragon.
eastern dragons dont need wings, they are more serpent like.
I thought wyrms were 0 legs 2 wings?
That’s technically an Amphiptere
Edit: Spelling
Again, depends on location, culture, and point in time. Wyrm could also be synonymous with “snake” which famously don’t have any legs or wings.
Dragonriders of Pern?
More like Wyvernriders. Eat shit, Anne McCaffrey.
Huh? In all her officially sanctioned art they have four limbs and two wings
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. :(
But all three fly. Right? right??
Dinosaurs skeletons were thought to have come from dragons until the 1800s
Why would anyone in 1600 think it was a reptile and not a large mammal?
Top is slop.
Bot is submissive, and also slop.
Bots on Lemmy?! If these bots are not self-hosted, I’m gonna file a complaint!
Skeletons got a femur in his arm.
alright… lets talk
Why aren’t they called flynosaurs?
Cuz they died
so this is how i find out
noflysaurs
Flynomores
Those are the P-Terrydactyls
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!”
So you’re saying dragons are just big chickens?
Massive, fire-breathing chickens, but yeah.
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.
Whose domesticating T-Rexes? That seems like a short career.
Johnny Rex
Depends on how tasty they are. Something something mammoths, giant sloths, boars, bovidae, etc. Also see zoo animals in 10mil years (lions, tigers, bears, yum yum)
“I’d like a 20 piece dragon mcnugget with spicy cretaceous sauce please”
T-Rex flying around with those tiny arms/wings
It’s kinda like a hummingbird. Those shits flapped at 500bpm. Talk about terrifying huh?
Exactly, if you can do a pull-up you can’t fly
