King-sized

[raptor]

I read some where something about what you would call "dwarf" dragon. Is that even possible?

[vampirehunter42]

I think there is a thread down there about "island dwarfing" on dragons. It is a thought on that some creatures when on a closed ecosystem over time, the "normal" size of the creature would be smaller than the starting species. Oddly it works the other way around with small creatures.

But I know I am setting myself up for an attack again. But I have been thinking of dragons about the size of maybe, at largest, a horse. And no smaller than a cat. That way they might logically be able to fly. And Fit into most of the drawings from European manuscripts. For example most of the St George slaying the dragons show the dragon as a little smaller than the horse.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

As much as i would love there to be dragons the size of houses and mountains I'm afraid that i will have to agree that those dragons will likely forever be left to the worlds of imagination.

[raptor]

What about sea-dragons? I heard they couild grow to a massive feat of 50ft or more.

[Drakel]

every one already knows that I'm a little into the 50ft dragons more than the "cat" sized ones. However your logic is very .... ummm... hard to fight with Vamp. however with hollow bones, and a wingspan at most 5-20% bigger than the body there is still a possibility about the 50 ft dragons, not to forget that we live on a world of many strange and illogical things, so there is without a doubt endless possibilities on things.

[alondor]

I too am a heavy supporter of the 50 ft dragon, mostly because of drakel's reasons but also because as far as we know dragons could of had an extra lung that like the one in a fish controlled altitude

[vampirehunter42]

Yes the old hollow bones idea may help a 50ft creature fly. But your estimate of wing size sounds a little small. A 50ft creature would need to have a wingspan of a couple of hundred feet. For example lets take the Large Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus), largest species of bat. It has a wingspan of up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) but only weighs 1.5 kg (3.3 lb.). I can't find a body length though, but the bat can’t be longer than a foot or two by the pics I can find. As a side note despite the name there it is a fruit eating bat. Also keep in mind how well the larger birds fly. If you have ever seen footage of an albatross taking off or landing you would know what I mean.


As for the extra lung thing. How is that meant to help it fly? And keep in mind both hydrogen and helium have about the same lifting strength. And if you are a fan of Mythbusters you have an idea on how much of either gas it takes just to lift a human off the ground.


As for water based dragons. I would guess a limited size to them. But it would be hard to guess. The best thing to do is compare it to known creatures and see how they survive with their size.

[Drakel]

Ok vamp... I see where my mistake went. You are right on that one, it will have to be about 2-4 times (i'll do math later) the size I came up with lol. My mistake however it's still a possibility on dragons being able to fly and sustain life even if it was 50 ft. That was the main point I was getting at.

(Those gasses will be useless in this case vamp, no need to bring them up.)

[jwalter]

Vamp, that's a very good thinking one your part to have the specification of today's animals with that of the dragons. This would help you to have better picture of the dragons and have better conclusions that's sounds quite next to reality.

[Corva]

Hmmm. Tempest has something on his site about the cube-quare law, which puts an upper omit on the size of Dragons. Even pushing the efficiency to the limit - humans only use about a 1/5 of the oxygen they inhale, due to CO2 toxicity forcing them to exhale before it's all used - and reducing their weight, you still wouldn't be able to get them much bigger than, say, a small car... and even that's suspect.

As a side not, look up Quetzalcoatlus and other such azhdarchids. There may have been the possiblity of riding these creatures, if there hadn't been close to 75 million years seperating us...