in today's times dragons are everywhere
they feature in books films TV series
and video games sometimes as villains
other times as heroes but where did
these creatures originate from are they
nothing more than made-up mythical
figures or is there more to than than
this in this five-part series we'll be
looking at some of the most common
mythical creatures and the histories
behind them from the infamous Russian
Yeti to something that originates way
back to Greek mythology real-life Giants
will be separating the myth from the
real and even looking at evidence
pointing towards these creatures not
being so mythical after all
so from evidence of their possible
existence to how they are recognized
around the world here are five things
you need to know about dragons sit back
and enjoy today's description and
territory now there is no need to
describe the common dragon as I'm sure
you're all familiar with them but the
typical mythical dragon is portrayed as
a large reptile with slight differences
depending on the region or culture is
originated from the European dragon is
depicted as a giant fire-breathing scaly
lizard-like creature with leathery bats
like wings horns and a long muscular
tail some show dragons with more
elaborate detailing like feathered wings
eeeyah frills crests and ivory spikes
running down their spines or as Chinese
dragons who are legendary in Chinese
folklore are more snake-like serpents
with four legs and are thought to
signify potent and favorable powers with
control over water the Chinese dragon is
a symbol of power strength and luck the
blood of a dragon is also thought to
contain unique powers and reports go way
back of Chinese families supposedly
raising dragons to use their blood for
medicine in popular culture dragons have
featured in a variety of books films and
TV programs most notably The Hobbit Game
of Thrones and of course Harry Potter as
well as games like Pokemon
of warcraft and super mario and they
even appear on the national Welsh flag
so where exactly did all this Dragon
mania come from and is there any
possibility that they were once real
where did they originate and what is the
earliest sighting many paleontologists
today believe there are connections
between the mythological dragon and the
human discovery of dinosaur fossils and
that Dragons
have evolved in our minds from a
possible real-life creature that lived
in prehistoric times the similarities
between dinosaurs and dragons are well
documented and in the 4th century
Chinese historian Chang Jean found
fossilized dinosaur bones and mistakenly
identified them as dragons it's an easy
mistake you only have to lurk as a
fossilized Stegosaurus a giant 30 foot
long beast with armored plates and
spikes down its back to see it has a
striking resemblance to how we depict a
dragon all it needs is the wings and
horns other winged dinosaurs such as
pettin asuras and pet radical although
much smaller also bear a resemblance to
a dragon so it is possible even
extremely likely that many of the dragon
legends that are known in some cultures
other distorted memories are people and
their perception of dinosaurs however
this is where things get interesting
before the dawn of communication how are
different countries depicting the same
dragon looking creature if it didn't
exist
the red dragon of Wales for example has
been around for a very long time the
oldest reference being written around
8:30 at the same time across the world
depictions of the same creature were
also being made also dragon has been
depicted in Greek mythology for
thousands of years and there are
countless tales of men fighting off
these huge beasts before any bones would
have been found
these include 1st century Greek
historian Strabo who reported a two
cubits long wind reptile there was fly
around at night in India and terrify the
locals I find that pretty interesting
again not saying dragons were definitely
real but how the details and tales of
them have stayed so consistent for
thousands
of years is interesting a modern-day
equivalent according to science there
are actually a few species that fit the
genre of being a modern-day dragon the
first is of course the Komodo dragon
from Indonesia this super-sized reptile
can grow up to three metres long and
weighs as much as 70 kilograms now
that's not on the scale of how we
perceive enormous dragons but it is the
world's biggest lizard and it's pretty
nasty as well capable of killing water
buffalo pigs and deer just using its
razor-sharp teeth and although they
cannot breathe fryer their saliva is
incredibly venomous in fact the Komodo
dragon is was thought Alexander the
Great witnessed hissing at him from
inside a cave in India to which he
reported it as a hissing dragon another
creature with similarities to a dragon
is the dragon snake found in Indonesia
and Malaysia it's a baffling reptile
that goes by several other names
including Javan mud snake and ruffed bat
litter saying it has rows of knobbly
black raised scales that run down its
back curiously there is only one species
of dragon snake and many of theorized
that it could be a descendant of the
real thing lastly there is an animal
called tracker Valen it's a species of
lizard found in Southeast Asia
if you scaled this thing up you'd
basically have a real-life mythical
dragon so when you learn all this
dragons are really far from just
mythical creatures if you look at the
features and behaviors of animals that
we already have on earth now maybe
somewhere down the line a real-life
creature and local legend and myths
merged into one giving us the mythical
dragon that we think of today but what
if the ancient reports were not
exaggerated and a creature used to exist
that fits the exact description of what
we now consider a mythical creature most
believable encounters and evidence now
we've talked about some of the creatures
that may have been mistaken for dragons
but it's a more recent discovery that
takes all of the boxes of how we
imagined a dragon to lurk and could
prove but dragons did in fact exist
it's been named Drac or ex Hogwarts iya
and it was discovered in May 2003 in the
Hal Creek region of South Dakota an
almost complete skull and several neck
vertebrae were found by three amateur
paleontologists from Iowa
Brian buck Mia and Steven Pat Salisbury
who donated their find to the Children's
Museum of Indianapolis were it still on
display today when reconstructed is the
closest any of the dinosaurs look to a
dragon with its bony head covered in
spikes and knobs and an estimated length
of eight to nine meters with a height of
1.2 meters so it is a lot smaller than a
typical mythical dragon we depicted a
its name was also chosen for his
dragon-like appearance Drac or X meaning
dragon king in Latin and believe it or
not the hogwarts parts of course comes
from the harry potter series its
discovery as unique as it's the first
time this species of boneheaded dinosaur
fossils have ever been found and this
new specimen suggests a new category in
the evolutionary department of the
boneheaded dinosaur family meaning there
is a lot we still do not know about
dinosaurs and or dragons so could Drac
or ex Hogwarts er be the actual creature
that has been associated as a dragon for
thousands of years it's certainly an
important breakthrough in the search for
proof that Dragons perhaps did once
exist so are they real or is it all just
a myth after looking at all the evidence
the question is where dragons real or
just a myth
the concept of dragons has captivated
humans for centuries with stories of
heroic men slaying fire-breathing
dragons they are memorialized in artwork
and legends around the world and
although some of the depictions differ
slightly the overall features are all
remarkably similar
so who's saying that a dragon was not
just a type of dinosaur that survived
after all the name dinosaur was not even
heard on until the mid-1800s so it's
possible that before the word dinosaur
came into our vocabulary these huge
reptilian land animals were in fact
thought of as Dragons the problem with
this argument is a fire-breathing part
as most of the basic characteristics of
a dragon can be found in known creatures
but one that breathes fire cannot
however chemically it is possible for
this to happen as is the case with a
bombardier beetle an insect that a
capable of spraying a very hot noxious
chemical spray through its abdomen the
beetle achieves this by storing two
chemicals in two reservoirs in its
stomach and when the two mix together
heat from the reaction brings the
mixture to boiling point and produces a
gas that drives the expulsion however
although it seems a bit far-fetched to
link this tiny destructive beetle to a
huge fire-breathing reptile but it does
demonstrate the possibility it's
entirely plausible that like many
creatures dragons went extinct for the
same reasons any other animal does and
those that did witness them felt
compelled to keep their existence alive
by many stories drawings books and
artifacts that have been found date back
thousands of years were dragons a
figment of human's imagination that has
become immortalized in the legend to
this day or is it possible they did once
exist I would certainly like to think
but they did once roam the earth towards
your thorns
so that's five things you need to know
about dragons I hope you've enjoyed and
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watching and as always I'll see you in
the next video