How about a bat-sized dragons? Just imagine those tiny little sinister flying flamethrowers.
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I mean, Human sized dragons would be scary enough already. Dont think Skyrim sized dragons, to put it simply.
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And for example, if the dragon wanted to breathe fire, it would exhale the gas and somehow ignite it. This would mean the dragon wouldn’t be able fly as it blows fire.
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The igniting mechanism shouldn’t be such a problem. I’d imagine something like an electric eel styled organ in the oral cavity or some scaly things rubbing, creating sparks (would have to be some kind of sparky material, which doesn’t seem too plausible, though).
The “dragon” could also ingest some flammabe (?) stones into a cavity in it’s mouth, and when it wants to breath fire, it blows the gas through, which hits the stones together and Creates a spark.
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For the dragon flight thing, we can look at real life examples, like the Argentavis. Despite being a huge bird, it still managed to fly. Maybe the answer to dragon flight will be discovered by studying its wing structure and bone constitution.
Argentavis “flew mainly by soaring, using flapping flight only during short periods. It is probable that it used thermal currents as well… Especially for takeoff, it would have depended on the wind. Although its legs were strong enough to provide it with a running or jumping start, the wings were simply too long to flap effectively until the bird was some height off the ground.[3] However, skeletal evidence suggests that its breast muscles were not powerful enough for wing flapping for extended periods of time” this is from wikipedia
For the dragon to lift of like people normally think it does( straight up like a helicopter) it have to have some sort of special feature to do so
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Another good example would be quetzalcoatlus, a giant pterosaur the size of a giraffe. also its wing structure would be closer that of a dragon than argentavis because dragons wings are usually shown to be made of skin.
The dragons would have to evolve to gather energy quicker, like being able to eat a wide range of things. Another helpful addition would be a really efficient digestive system to get the maximum amount of nutrients from the smallest amount of food.
Ok. I have an idea for large flyers. What if it’s like a livig blimp? The body mostly consists of a giant gas bladder and wings are mostly there to handle propulsion. I understand that it’s not very dragon-y, but it doesn’t have to be. Just big, flies and breathes fire.
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I think that the dragon would have gas bladders with flammable, lighter than atmosphere gas, that the dragon could use to breathe fire and lift itself off the ground. Though the gas bladders are just ment to make the creature easier to fly.
Do keep in mind however that having large enough gas bladders to fly also means that the creature would be large and slow, not making for a sustainable lifestyle.
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I agree, when I think floating gas-bladdered creatures, I would think of ARK’s gasbags, which are peaceful herbivores, rather than a ferocious apex predator that is the dragon.
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A way to use gas bladders without sacrificing size or aerodynamics is finding a gas spring or something, using it to fill the bladders, and once in the air, spewing the gas out. Then the bladders would flatten down
And then it would crash due to the gas being gone again.
The gas wouldn’t be required, it just be vary useful. The dragon could also inhale the gas, and when it wants to dive for prey release it
I think we are forgetting that evolution has no forethought and no forward planning. We are discussing a trait - which seems to be fire-breathing in this case - and how it could be physiologically possible without considering how each of these components which would make fire-breath possible could potentially arise from certain features. We are essentially treating evolution as if it has a final product it wishes to reach (fire-breath) and will evolve certain specific adaptations for the sole purpose of gaining this trait.
Let’s look back at the eye.
When the first step towards a wonderfully complex organ such as our eyes were taken - evolving pigment spots - it wasn’t because there was a plan in place for the final product to be created. Rather, photo-receptive proteins evolved into pigment spots because it was extremely advantageous for an organism to be able to tell whether or not light was reaching it. For the next step of the eye’s evolution, the photo-receptor layer descended into a cup because it helped discern the direction from which light was coming from, which was incredibly advantageous when organisms started being able to move around rapidly. The same pattern emerges for every evolutionary step afterwards; a random mutation happens, it turns out to work in the current ecosystem, repeat, and now we have an eye, and we will have different forms of eyes in the future.
None of this was planned; despite how outlandish and perfect our eye seems, it was all a result of our ancestors continuously adapting to their current situation.
I see that we are deep in discussion about morphological features which could potentially lead to fire-breath. Two of the most recurring trends in this topic are gas bladders and stones. To me, the stones look the most feasible over the bladders, because I can easily see why an animal would want to ingest stones in the first place; it can be used to help with digestion.
But if we are talking about gas bladders, in what situation would having a gas bladder and just a gas bladder be useful? In other words, why would an animal want to evolve a gas bladder, and how could this be transformed into fire-breath with iterative steps that are each uniquely useful for their present environmental challenges? Fish have gas bladders, which helps them with controlling their depth; perhaps a gas bladder in flying organisms could be derived from an animal that was initially amphibious?
I feel like this is the best way to talk about a trait; not by brainstorming ways by which a trait could function and assuming that each independent feature evolves perfectly as if planned, but by looking at real-life counterparts and imagining how they could be used to fuel such fantastic abilities.
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I’ll just start with a fish. First, in order for the fish to escape predators, the fish rapidly fills up it’s gas bladder and shoots up, escaping the predators. Next, this process is improved to allow the fish to shoot out of the water, as predators have evolved to swim extremely fast(pursuing the fish up). Then, the fish grows primitive lungs to allow it to stay in the air for longer. Due to lowering sea levels and increased completion, the flippers form into primitive legs. Now, without as much predation, the animal uses it’s gas bladders and jumping legs to reach food higher in the trees.
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This directly links to why living blimps aren’t a thing, there would be a vulnerable transition stage where the animal would be facing multiple dangers in order to reach a stage at which it can float around efficiently enough to avoid predators and/or catch prey.
PS: (Very nice example by the way)
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