Could Dragons Exist? — Pt. 3. Where Would Dragons Live?
By: Zia Steele
Tags: Animals, Fantasy, Biology, Evolution, Science

Could Dragons Exist? — Pt. 3

In my last two posts, we discussed realistic adaptations animals could develop that would grant them the abilities of our favorite mythical beasts: dragons. However, science tells us that adaptations don’t come about unless they help an organism survive and reproduce. For natural selection to produce a real-life dragon, there need to be environmental factors that make breathing fire, shooting lightning, or spewing snow evolutionarily advantageous. In this post, I’ll be concluding our journey into the biology of dragons by imagining where these animals could feasibly evolve and how they could most effectively use their abilities.

In case you missed them, here are my first two posts on dragons. I recommend reading them before diving into this one:

In those posts, I devised physiologies for four different types of dragons: firebreathing dragons, lightning dragons, plasma-breathing dragons, and snow dragons. To understand how such dragons could evolve, we need to know what habitats they would be adapting to, what survival strategies they would be adopting, and how they would each reproduce. We’ll start with the classic fire-breathers.

The Zoology of Fire Dragons

Breathing fire has obvious survival advatages. A dragon could use its fire defensively to ward off would-be predators or creatures competing for resources, and they could use it to hunt. The challenge with this adaptation is that the dragon needs to be careful not to burn down the habitat it depends on for food. If it burns down huge amounts of land each time it snags a meal, before long there won’t be any animals left to eat. After that, no more dragons!

One way dragons could minimize this issue is by maintaining a huge territory with multiple hunting grounds. In my first post, we based the flight mechanics of a dragon off those of the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlas. Those fliers could travel up to 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) and stay in the air for seven days at a time. No doubt our fire dragons would have huge territories. However, causing damage such as forest fires to its hunting grounds whenever it eats would greatly reduce the number of dragons that could survive on the planet and how long they could go before facing extinction. To truly solve the problem of environmental damage, fire dragons need to hunt for prey in places that are highly resistant to fire damage and rich in prey. For that, we turn to prairies.

Prairies, or grasslands, would make an ideal hunting ground for fire dragons because they actually depend on brush fires to stay healthy. These fires can be caused by lightning strikes, but people often start them in order to better preserve grasslands. According to The Nature Conservancy:

Fire is a natural part of the grassland ecosystem and helps maintain its health and vigor. It warms up the soil and reduces the leaf litter that accumulates each year, allowing sunlight to penetrate. Warming the soil increases microbial activity, which releases nutrients from decaying plant material that new grasses and flowers need to grow. After a fire, blackened fields quickly revive with new, green grasses and abundant, showy wildflowers. Big bluestem, purple coneflower and blazing star are among the many species that thrive with fire. Indeed, hundreds of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota’s plant species would be lost without it.

Dragons could use their fire-breath to hunt on prairies without driving away their prey. In fact, they might actually attract prey. Brush fires cut down the number of trees, woody shrubs, and invasive species on a prairie, leaving room for a lush re-growth of grass that attracts grazers like bison. The grazers moving to a recently burned area also ensures that previously burned areas can recover quickly without being mowed down by hungry mouths. This process would allow a fire dragon to predict the grazing patterns of its prey and make multiple successful visits to the same hunting grounds.

Grazers like bison would provide an excellent diet for our fire dragons. As I mentioned in my first dragon post, fire dragons would need a diet rich in iron to produce flammable methanol to fuel their fire-breath. While meat isn’t the only source of iron for an animal, carnivores consume a lot of easily absorbed heme-iron which would serve our fire dragon well. Bison also produce a great deal of methane, which dragons could collect to produce methanol. Specifically, fire dragons could capture bison and keep them in a poorly ventilated space deep within a cave. There, the bison’s methane would be confined and the dragon could inhale it to use for methanol production. This idea fits with the classic depiction of dragons living in caves, which aren’t as far from prairies as you may think.

Shortgrass prairies like those east of the Rocky Mountains form when mountains ranges block rainy weather from reaching them, resulting in a hot, dry climate. A prairie like this would be in close proximity to mountain ranges where dragons could find caves to call home. The hot, dry climate of this type of prairie would also make it easier for our dragon to use its fire-breath to hunt.

In my fire dragon post, I explained why a dragon would have a hard limit on how long it could breath fire each day. This limit would vary based on the amount of fuel used in any one fire attack. A hot, dry landscape covered in grass would easily catch fire. Fire dragons could take advantage of this to trap and kill prey without spending much fuel. For example, a dragon hunting a herd of bison could separate individual bison by igniting the grass around them. The grass would catch fire quickly and create a prison of flames which the bison couldn’t escape. If the dragon wanted to eat the bison immediately, they could wait for them to burn to death. This method would ensure the bison couldn’t fight back and effectively cook their meat. If the dragon needed to take a bison alive, it could pick one up and fly back to its cave. In my first dragon post, I asserted that fire dragons would already need exceptionally strong muscles to create the pressure needed to make methanol. Therefore, their wings might be strong enough to carry a bison with them in the air.

It’s also important to note that if our hypothetical dragons lived in a world with humans, it could be very easy for them to pick off cows and other livestock from farms. Although, humans would inevitably find a way to deter them.

One final way fire dragons could make use of their fire-breath is mating. Many male animals engage in physical competitions to demonstrate to females their vitality and potential as a mate. This process is known as sexual selection. Dragons could fight for mates using their fire-breath, which is known as intrasexual selection. Alternatively, they could compete to see who can produce hotter, brighter, or longer lasting fire than their opponents. Being able to produce more fire is an advantage that females would want their offspring to inherit. It stands to reason a female would choose to mate with a male that demonstrates the most powerful fire-breath. Females choosing the most promising males as mates is called intersexual selection. Competitions like these would ensure future generations of dragons possess stronger fire-breath than their ancestors.

Now that we have a good idea of where fire dragons would live and how they would behave, let’s apply what we’ve learned to our next two groups…

The Zoology of Lightning and Plasma Dragons

Many aspects of our fire dragon’s habitat would also benefit a lightning or plasma dragon. Lighting dragons would want their prey to be exposed in an open area so that they would be in the path of least resistance for the dragons’ electricity. If a lightning dragon attacks from the air with no trees or rocks nearby, the fastest path from the air to the ground will be through an animal. Therefore, it makes sense lightning dragons would hunt on prairies as well. In my last dragon post, I conjectured that a lightning dragon could spew salt water to help guide its electricity towards prey. In that case, they would want to live near a coastal prairie. Coastal prairies exist by the ocean, making salt water easily accessible. They would also benefit from the any fires caused by a lightning dragon’s attacks, making them a good hunting ground for both lightning and fire dragons.

Plasma dragons would hunt in a very similar way to fire and lightning dragons, so they would also look for food on either coastal or shortgrass prairies. A plasma breathing dragon would use fire rather than salt water to guide its electricity. However, it would also enjoy a coastal habitat because a rocky coastline would have plenty of caves where it could take methane-producing prey to fuel its fire. Coastal caves are created by the erosion of rock by sea water, and their complex layouts would be perfect for trapping animals that aren’t adapted to aquatic or subterranean environments.

Not only would all three types of dragon have similar habitats and hunting grounds, but they would also all use their adaptations to attract mates. Male lightning and plasma dragons would fight using their plasma and compete to see who could produce the largest lightning bolts or plasma plumes.

We have now covered the zoology of these three closely related dragons, but our fourth type will be quite different…

The Zoology of Snow Dragons

As I went over in my last post, both the air and water of a snow dragon’s environment must be incredibly cold for the water it ejects to freeze into ice before striking its target. I based my calculations of the Arctic, but could a large reptilian creature really survive under arctic conditions? In fact, they already have. Many Cretaceous dinosaurs actually lived in the Arctic. Don’t believe me? Watch this video from PBS Eons:

The video explains that dinosaurs adapted to the Arctic by growing insulating feathers, developing large eyes to see in low light, and not being too big or too small. Growing to the size of larger dinosaurs from warmer climates would have been impossible for arctic dinosaurs because of food scarcity. A smaller snow dragon could probably evolve in a similar manner to arctic dinosaurs, but the limit to its size would also limit the amount of snow it would be strong enough to spew. These dragons would likely hunt other arctic wildlife by using small snow attacks to cool their bodies and slow down their movements. They could also stun prey with the force of their snow attacks or weigh them down with frost.

Larger snow dragons like the ones I described in my last post would likely be too slow to hunt on land efficiently. Instead, they would likely evolve to be semiaquatic, spending most of their time in the ocean where their weight would be supported by bouyancy. This evolutionary strategy would be similar to that of blue whales, the largest animals to ever live. Furthermore, the ocean would provide a greater abundance of food than the barren land.

I suspect the only reason a large snow dragon would return to land is to rest somewhere with fewer predators. These dragons would likely only need to spew snow as a defense mechanism against land predators such as the smaller snow dragons I mentioned earlier. Although, they might be able to use their snow to incapacitate and eat birds looking for fish out on the ocean or any prey they do come across while on land.

With that, we now have an idea of how dragons could evolve in the wild, but how might they evolve along side humans…

Could Dragons Be Domesticated?

Who wouldn’t want a flying pet that could breath fire? (Probably people with a strong sense of self preservation.) All jokes aside, could we ever tame, train, or domesticate real-life dragons? The answer depends on exactly what type of animal a dragon is. Up to this point, we have been basing our dragon physiologies off of pterosaurs and dinosaurs. However, would-be dragon trainers face a serious issue if these similarities extend to their brains.

The animals we typically think of as trainable such as dogs have regions of the brain that allow them to experience emotions outside of the basic survival instincts governed by the limbic system, the part of the brain they share with reptiles. Reptiles lack these regions of the brain, so they do not develop complex emotional bonds with humans that would allow them to be trained. Birds are also thought to have a limited degree of emotional intelligence and a greater dependence on instinct. Since birds and reptiles are the closest living relatives to pterosaurs and dinosaurs, we can infer that those animals also lacked the capacity to develop emotional bonds with humans. Since we’re assuming our dragons would be closely related to these groups, it seems like having a pet dragon that loves its owner and follows their commands would be impossible. You can watch the video below to get a better idea of why this is:

I should clarify that emotional intelligence and instinctual intelligence are two very different traits. Reptiles may lack the neurology to learn tricks, but their instincts do grant them incredibly smart survival strategies. We should also refine the terminology we’re using. To tame an animal is to take that individual animal and keep it from showing hostility towards you. To train an animal is to teach that animal to follow complicated commands. Domestication means to take a group of animals and adapt them to serve specific purposes. Across generations, domesticated animals undergo physical changes so they can better serve their predetermined purpose. This process occurs when the animals are selectively bred by humans so their offspring exhibit desirable traits.

We know taming reptiles and birds is possible since so many are already kept in captivity where zookeepers and pet owners can interact with them without them lashing out. However, the best reptile trainers can only teach them to complete a simple goal like following a target to get food. That’s it. These animals are still cognitively the same as their wild counterparts. Therefore, it seems training or domesticating fully reptilian dragons is out of the question. You couldn’t get them to fly you across the country or shoot fire on command.

Hold on, Toothless. Come back. There’s still hope. Notice that I said “fully reptilian” dragons couldn’t be trained like a dog or a horse. It’s important to remember that these dragons we’re discussing are completely hypothetical creatures. Therefore, we can conceive of them evolving away from their reptilian ancestors and developing the brain structures necessary for emotional intelligence. We already know this can happen because it happens to us. Mammals evolved from reptiles that lived in the Triassic period. That’s why people refer to the human limbic system as the “lizard brain.” It’s the part of the brain we still rely on that completely governed our reptilian ancestors.

The fact that modern-day mammals with all of their complex emotions arose from reptiles makes it reasonable to assume dragons could evolve similarly. Specifically, they could develop the cortices in the brain needed to be trained and eventually domesticated while maintaining their classic reptilian appearance.

Conclusion

Let’s go over our working hypotheses:

Both fire and plasma dragons would likely live in mountain caves or sea caves and hunt on shortgrass or coastal prairies. These dragons would use their searing breath to surround their prey with fire. They’d either eat their prey once its thoroughly charred or carry it off to their lairs to harvest methane. Lightning dragons would also hunt on grasslands where their electricity could shock prey unimpeded. They would prefer to live near the coast where they would have easy access to the salt water they need to help aim their attacks.

Male dragons might win over their mates by fighting one another or competing to see whose attacks are the most impressive.

Snow dragons living in the Arctic could follow two different evolutionary strategies. They could become small and fast like arctic dinosaurs and use their snow attacks to hunt, or they could become large like whales and spend most of their time in the water. Larger snow dragons would likely use their snow attacks for defense against land predators instead of hunting.

Finally, dragons might be domesticated by humans if they evolved the neurology needed to experience complex emotions which reptiles lack.

Hopefully, this information brings these fantastical beasts closer to reality in our minds and our hearts. With that sentiment, I conclude my series on dragon biology, but I look forward to hearing others’ thoughts on my hypotheses and further discussing how real-life dragons would live and function.

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