Where Did Dragons Come From?
- by Adorn Themes Collaborator
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Around the world, people celebrate the mere idea of dragons. That got us thinking, where did the idea of dragons come from, who invented them and why are they still circulating the fantasy world to this day?
Dinosaurs
Ancient people may have discovered dinosaur fossils and misinterpreted them as being dragons. Chang Qu is a Chinese historian and he labelled a fossil as such. Look at the stegosaurus for example, they were around 14 foot tall, covered in armoured plating and they had spikes as a method for defence. Dragons? Very similar, and this is especially the case when you look at the other dinosaurs that roamed the earth at the time.
The Nile Crocodile
The Nile crocodile is native to Africa. There have been various reports of sea dragons and legends that swim across the Mediterranean and the Nile crocodile is among the biggest of the crocodile species. Individuals can reach 18 feet in length and they are also capable of lifting their body off the ground. This is another source where dragons could have originated from.
The Goanna
Australia is home to a huge number of monitor lizards, often called Goannas. These large animals have very sharp teeth and they are very important figures when you look at the aboriginals. When you look at the sheer size of them, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that these were once mistook for dragons and this is especially the case if you look at their earlier ancestors.
So the idea of a dragon may be universally accepted, but the origins are unknown. They could have derived from dinosaurs, the Australian Goanna or even the Nile crocodile, but it is certainly an interesting concept to think about and who knows what else from the fantasy world actually stemmed from the creatures that are walking our planet right now?
