As time passes, stories of what we call myths and mythical beings like dragons are passed down. Different tales of dragons were produced by cultures across the globe, while the stories differ greatly, the basic idea is the same: dragons were giant winged lizards that could breathe fire, and in some cases tormented civilizations. While the stories are more complicated, that is the basic idea. As our knowledge of the world around us increases and we continue to explore, we are able to better explain these stories that in today’s world seem impossible.
While they are not exactly dragon bones, they are fossils that strongly resemble myths from ancient civilizations. Along with matching the myths, these fossils are also found in the same area where the myths originated from. There were four ‘dragon’ fossils discovered with the most popular being strongly similar to a Chinese dragon. First discovered in 2003, after 10 years they had a complete skeleton of the entire creature known as Dinocephalosaurus Orientalis. When all the pieces were put together the creature appeared to be curled in a figure eight like seen in Chinese myths. The fossil suggests that this creature was a marine species with a long neck, with flippered limbs. Along with that, this creature’s long neck resembles another equally baffling ancient creature, a marine reptile known as Tanystropheus hydroides.
There are other ‘dragon’ fossils that have been discovered over the years. With the most recent known as Argentina’s dragon of death discovered in 2022. This discovery was not a dinosaur fossil but actually a pterosaur, it is also the biggest pterosaur discovered in South Africa. The fossil suggested the creature had a wingspan of 30ft, roughly around the same size of a modern hanglider. The fossils, and a life-sized reproduction of one of those dragons, is on display at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza. While these fossils aren’t of real dragons, it is very interesting to see how close these fossils are to myths from the day long past. While it is highly unlikely that any dinosaurs lived long enough to come in contact with humans, it is an interesting thought.
