Dragons Are Real

Let's start by taking a look at a skeleton of Dracorex, a real creature whose name means “Dragon King”: In order to reduce the inevitable incredulity at the thought of actual reptiles breathing smoke, here are some animals alive today with non-fire breathing, yet still amazing abilities: Electric Eel The Electric Eel can produce a shock of over 600 volts. To put that in perspective, the power of the standard U.S. wall socket is only about 100 volts. I've attached a video of an Electric Eel slowly but surely electrocuting an alligator to death. The shock is silent, but clearly lethal. Horned Lizard The Horned Lizard can shoot a 5-foot stream of blood from its eyes. It does this by raising its blood pressure until the vessels in its eyeballs literally burst. Marine Iguana The Marina Iguana can emit a shower of saline from it's nostrils. It does this by filtering the excess salt from the ocean water it drinks and sneezing it out. Overtime, a salty crown develops on the Iguana's head from all the salt it sneezes on itself. Spitting Cobra The Spitting Cobra emits a longe-range stream of venom from it's fangs up to over 6 feet. It aims for the eyes of it's aggressor with amazing accuracy, causing permanent blindness if left untreated. Bombardier Beetle The Bombardier Beetle can fire a shower of boiling chemicals from it's rear end. It does this by mixing highly reactive chemicals together. The heat and pressure that results from this reaction expels the chemicals out of it's behind at high speeds. To be clear, I'm not arguing for the existence of any creature that had 4 legs plus a pair of wings. I have doubts about the plausibility of such a 6-limbed animal because I've never seen a fossil of one. I'm only arguing for the plausibility of a dinosaur or pterosaur emitting smoke from it's mouth (and possibly sparks, or even fire). I've provided scientifically verifiable examples of creatures alive today which can: shoot blood from their eyes, shoot saline from their nose, shoot venom from their fangs, shoot boiling chemicals from their behind, & electrocute animals to death without hurting themselves. Now it shouldn't be too far a stretch to posit that an extinct reptile once emitted smoke. If it were true that some extinct reptiles breathed smoke and/or fire, we would expect to find fossils of dinosaurs that had peculiar chambers in their head. In fact, we do. National Geographic released an article called, T. Rex, Other Dinosaurs Had Heads Full of Air. In this article(1), we find comments particularly relevant to this debate, such as: New 3-D scans of the skulls of Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs reveal the creatures had more empty space inside their heads than previously thought. The nasal airways in the ankylosaurs[...] were surprisingly convoluted. It was as if "crazy straws" had been rammed up the creatures' snouts Here is a picture of a Parasaurolophus skull with a “crest connected to the pharynx and nasal cavity though an elaborate system of passages”, according to the University of Maryland: Now that I believe I've demonstrated the plausibility of the mere existence of smoke or fire-breathing dinosaurs (a.k.a. dragons), I will now argue in support of the second part of the resolution. Dragons not only existed, but some lived at the same time as people. I feel I need to make it clear that by arguing this, I am in no way defying science. Although it is commonly accepted that all dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, it was once also accepted that the Coelacanth went extinct 65 million years ago too(2), yet live Coelacanths have since been found. They now belong to the most endangered order in the entire world. It is fallacious to argue that no dinosaurs lived with people just because none of their fossils have been dated younger than 65 million years, since the Coelacanth case disproves this logic. The Wollemi Pine is another example of an organism presumed to have never shared the earth with humans due to interpretation of the fossil record. Yet, Wollemi Pine trees, capable of growing up to 130 feet, are now known to live today. Now that I've established that the co-existence of dinosaurs and people in no way defies science, hopefully you will be more accepting of dinosaur reports from credible historians, some of whom actually saw dinosaurs with their own eyes. We'll start with Herodotus the Greek historian, also known as the “Father of History” who lived 2,500 years ago. He records “hearing of some winged serpents” in Arabia: “[W]hen I arrived there, I saw bones and spines of serpents, in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe. The form of the serpent is like that of a water-snake; but he has wings without feathers, and as like as possible to the wings of a bat[...]” Next is Josephus, the Jewish historian. In his book, Antiquities of the Jews(3), he records: “Moses[...] took and led his army before those enemies were apprized of his attacking them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents, (which it produces in vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of those productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at unawares, and do them a mischief,) Moses invented a wonderful stratagem to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes, and carried them along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they fly they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts; but the ibes are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind: but about these ibes I say no more at present, since the Greeks themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As soon, therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder of these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants before the army came upon that ground.” Then there is Dio the Roman historian. Paraphrased by St. John of Damascus, who sought to undermine the many superstitions attributed to dragons, we read: “Some people claim that dragons can both take the human form and turn into serpents, sometimes small, sometimes huge, differing in body length and size. And sometimes[...] having turned into people, they start to associate with them, appear to steal women and consort with them.[...] it clearly follows that dragons are intelligent beings greatly exceeding men, which has never been true, and never will be. I am not telling you, after all, that there are no dragons; dragons exist but they are serpents borne of other serpents. Being just born and young, they are small; but when they grow up and get mature, they become big and fat so that they exceed the other serpents in length and size. It is said they grow up more than thirty cubits; as for their thickness, they get as thick as a big log. Dio the Roman (A.D. 155 – 236) who wrote the history of Roman empire and republic, reports the following: one day, when Regulus, a Roman consul, was fighting against Carthage, a dragon suddenly crept up and settled behind the wall of the Roman army. The Romans killed it by order of Regulus, excoriated it and sent the hide to the Roman senate. When the dragon’s hide, as Dio says, was measured up by order of the senate, it happened to be, amazingly, one hundred and twenty feet long, and the thickness was fitting to the length.” “There is one more kind of dragon; those have wide head, goldish eyes and horny protuberances on the back of the head. They also have a beard [jutting] out of the throat; this kind of dragons is called “agaphodemons”[...] This dragon is a sort of beasts, like the rest of the animals, for it has a beard, like a goat, and horn at the back of its head. Its eyes are big and goldish. These dragons can be both big and small. All serpent kinds are poisonous, except dragons, for they do not emit poison.” Last, but not least, here is Marco Polo's eye-witness report from when he traveled to China 700 years ago: “Here are seen huge serpents, 50 feet in length, and 100 inches in the girt of the body. At the fore part, near the head, they have two short legs, having three claws like those of a tiger, with eyes larger than a fourpenny loaf[...] and very glaring. The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are large and sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor any kind of animal, can approach them without terror. Others are met with of a smaller size[...]; and the following method is used for taking them. In the day-time, by reason of the great heat, they lurk in caverns, from whence, at night, they issue to seek their food, and whatever beast they meet with and can lay hold of, [...] they devour; after which they drag themselves towards some lake, spring of water, or river, in order to drink. By their motion[...]and their vast weight, they make a deep impression, as if a heavy beam had been drawn along the sands. Those whose employment it is to hunt them observe the track[...] and fix into the ground several pieces of wood, armed with sharp iron spikes, which they cover with the sand in such a manner as not to be perceptible. When therefore the animals make their way towards the places they usually haunt, they are wounded by these instruments, and speedily killed." St. George the Dragon Slayer (1) http://news.nationalgeographic.com... (2) http://vertebrates.si.edu... (3) http://sacred-texts.com...