Strange Creatures Series- Do Dragons exist?

Dragons are legendary creatures with reptilian/serpentine traits that appear in myths in cultures all over the world.Everyone assumes that Dragons are mythical creatures that no longer exist today. But did you know there have been reports of dragon sightings? That sound's looney right? Where on earth can such a huge creature be hiding in? As you see, I assume that all dragons are huge creatures and not their sorry excuse of a cousin- Mushu.

So, let me show you Dragons from around the world:
China: This is a country that is permanently obsessed with Dragons as symbols of power and prosperity. The Dragons in Chinese mythology are considered benevolent and they are very anatomically concise- there 117 scales, out of which 81 are of the yang essence (positive) and 36 are of the yin essence (negative). A Dragon with 5 claws was the representative of the Emperors whilst a dragon with 3 or 4 claws was associated with commoners. Chinese dragons are serpentine creatures with long bodies and four legs. They look elegant yet powerful. Due to its benevolent nature, it doesn't breath fire unless it wants to show divine displeasure.


Europe: European dragons are malevolent creatures who are just out to eat virgins and going for communal BBQs at the nearby villages. In comparison to Eastern Dragons, they are more stout, they have wings and they traded the hair/fur for more horns/spikes. They look much more muscular and aggressive. Unlike the Chinese dragon, which remained as an impressive creature over centuries, the European Dragon shrank in size and stature over the years. The Dragon was a symbol of the Pagan era and with the spread of Christianity, Dragons were reduced to the role of an evil creature being subdued by the victorious arm of Christ (like St George). Looking at the two pictures above, you might notice how the first pagan picture shows a brave hero tackling a bigger dragon, whereas the stylized St-George-killing-the-dragon had a tiny dragon that looked more like a lizard submitting to the might of St George. There are many more stories regarding European Dragons that date back in time, such as the story of Siegfried the Dragon Slayer in the German Nibelungenlied, but I won't go into them because it can go on for over 5 pages.



Ancient Middle-East: I will lump 3 ancient Dragons here from Babylon, Ancient Egypt and Sumeria together here because these three cultures engaged in a lot of cultural exchange with each other.
There are two types of Babylonian Dragons that I know off. One is Marduk (picutre above) that guards the walls of the city and the other is Tiamat, the symbol of chaos. They have many other Dragon stories, but the exact role of Dragons in the life of the common folk remains unknown.
Ancient Egypt's "Dragon" is actually a snake with wings who is always trying to take away the sun. As a result, the ancient Egyptians hated Apep/Apophis.In the case of Sumer, we can only tell that the dragon and dragon slayer(s) relationship primarily involves the dragon, Kur, committing some great wrong against the gods and either a god or goddess appearing to vanquish it. Many portions of the story are still missing as many parts of the tablet were still in fragments. You can read more at the richeast.org link below.

Hisotrial Dragons aside, let's take a look at the list of Dragon sightings that occured recently:

• The most scientifically reliable description is that of Peter Karl van Esling, the director of The Hague Zoo, who gives an account of a water dragon sighted during a voyage to collect marine species in the Atlantic in 1860:
  
  

  We saw a gigantic reptile, bright blue and silver in colour. He swam gracefully
  around the ship before the sailors' eyes, and submerged himself without a
  splash. His eyes were enormous, with vertical pupils and an intelligent expression. They seemed luminous, but this effect could be due to the reflection from the setting sun.
  
  His head was adorned with bright blue and green crests. Even though he disappeared under water and did not reappear, he appeared to measure some seven meters in length, and on his back they could make out something resembling a crest or fins. It was serpent-like, but the sailor thought they saw legs and claw.
  
  They baptized him Megophias.
  

• French-American scientist Rafinesque-Schmaltz wrote of a two hundred foot long sea-serpent seen by Mrs. W. Lee, in 1805, near Cape Breton and Newfoundland. She stated: "Its back was dark green and it stood in the water in flexuous hillocks and went through it with impetuous noise."
• On May 15th, 1833, in Mahone Bay, forty miles west of Halifax, three officers and two enlisted men of Her Majesty's Navy were relaxing on the deck of a fishing boat when they sighted at a distance of one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards:
  

  ". . . the head and the neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those
  of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown
  forward by the curve of the neck as to enable us to see the water under and
  beyond it. The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from the
  commencement of which, to the forepart, which was out of water, we judged its
  length to be about 80 feet; and this within rather than beyond the mark . . ."

• The first recorded sighting in Canadian water was on July 15th, 1825, in Halifax Harbour. It was seen by several people from entirely separate positions. They described it as having "a body as big as a tree trunk... The animal had about eight coils or humps to its body and was about sixty feet long."
  

Watch this video and decide for yourself- is it real? Was it merely coincidental? Or was it a product of modern technology?


Our ancestors told us stories of many types of dragons- mainly water dragons and flying dragons. This seems to be a constant factor in folklores throughout the world. What made them come up with the concept of dragons if dragons never really existed to begin with? Some have speculated that the myth of dragons was born out of the discovery of dinosaur bones- probably the ones like the Brachiosaurus or Apatosaurus (in layman terms- the long necked dinosaur). Typical of the brainy morons that we are, it is assumed that our ancestors lacked the expertise to piece the (probably incomplete) set of bones together to form a proper dinosaur and created a creatures which they deemed to be a dragon. Heh, we call ourselves clever and we can't even reverse engineer accupuncture, treppaning, the Pyramids of Egypt, etc. So I think humans need to shut up and be less arrogant about their beliefs in their alleged superiority. We have traded our brains for technology- now isn't that a sad thing??

Information Taken from:
http://www.thecryptmag.com/Online/23/Dragonsightings.html
http://www.richeast.org/htwm/dragons/dragons.html