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Ice Dragon
dragon title

THE MYTHS, THE FANTASY, THE REALITY

DRAGON ORIGINS

We asked a group of people where they thought dragons came from. They said:

Legends Chart

We know dragons have been around for millenia. The question remains, however, where did they come from? Answer? No one knows. There are a number of theories that archeologists have put together. We’ll explore a few of them here.

 

Dinosaurs

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Fossil, American Learning Library

Many archaeologists believe that some people may have come across large dinosaur bones and assumed they were from dragons - a creature much larger than anyone else knew.

 
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Snow Dragon, by Sunny Marker
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Large Snakes

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Anaconda; Mark Newman; Gettyimages.com

Some archaeologist theorize that people came across giant snakes. Because of the size and motion, they assumed they were dragons. It’s that reptile tongue thing.

 
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Whales

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Sperm Whale, Cosmos Magazine, Oct-Nov 2014

It is possible that some people came across a whale carcass or bones and created a dragon to explain them. Whale skeletons don’t really look like whales.

 
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For more ideas about where dragons came from, visit Smithsonian Magazine's "Where Did Dragons Come From?"

 

Resources:
  1. Smithsonian Magazine, Stromburg, Joseph; 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/where-did-dragons-come-from-23969126/