Where Did Dragons Come From?

However, what if evolution had gone a little differently?????

The life of an arboreal lizard has many hazards; so, to survive, you'll need a few skills. Climbing ability is a must, of course, but the ability to slip quickly through tight spaces is also important. Therefore, you should try to stay thin; however, looking big when you're face to face with a predator or a mating rival could either keep you alive or allow you to have children, so being wide has it's advantages. As a result, the lizards that best balanced these contradictory demands thrived, while others didn't do as well. Over time, one line one arboreal lizard developed flaps of skin over their front legs that they could open to look bigger while remaining thin enough to maneuver through the branches. Not too long after that, the skin flaps developed cartilage to open wider and look bigger, then with unsupported skin flaps without hindering its climbing.

In some of these lizards, the cartilage ossified into thin, hollow bone spurs, that held the flaps rigid while extended. This did interfere with their climbing abilities, but it also slowed their fall if they fell from the tree or had to leap from a predator. As a result, the lizards with these rigid flaps frequently lived long enough to pass the trait on to their children. Natural selection favored the lizards with the longer, narrower flaps which had better glide characteristics, so they became winged lizards. Now, better able to search the tree tops for food, and escape predators with ease, the gliding lizards thrived, and continued to evolve. The gliding lizards developed better wings allowing them greater maneuverability and longer flights, which meant a better chance of survival. Since they were the first vertebrates to take to the air, they found an untapped food source -- flying insects. Of course, other lizards ate insects, but if the insect made it to the air, the ground or tree bound lizard had missed its chance at lunch, but the gliding lizards, still had one more chance to catch it on the wing. Unfortunately ( for the lizards, not the insects) , the insects were still much more maneuverable in the air. This meant that the lizards with better maneuverability in the air lived better then the others. So natural selection favored more flexible, but controlled wings. Little by little, as with the fins of amphibians before them, the wings' bones developed joints, and muscles and, in short time as these things are measured, the rigid gliding flaps became flexible wings. Eventually, the first truly winged lizard flapped its wings for the first time.

It wasn't just the wings that were developing during this time. Other weapons were also being added to the arsenal of the airborne reptiles. The insects' superior flying abilities gave a survival advantage to the gliding lizards that had faster, longer necks to strike at the insects with once they were close. Therefore, necks became longer and more flexible, and better at quick forward strikes. It's not surprising that nature used the same solution, in regards to plesiosaurs and fish. After all, if it works, reuse it--is the way of nature.

Once armed with flapping wings, four talon legs and long striking necks, the winged lizards were now true fliers and the top predators of the air. Which meant they were eating better, so they grew larger. That, of course, meant they needed better wings for lift and propulsion, lighter bones, a higher metabolism for more energy to flap those improved wings, and a food source that could power the whole set up. The wings did improve taking on more characteristics of the other limbs becoming long webbed fingers on long arms. The bones of some of the lizards became hollow; reducing their weight while increasing their strength. They developed a warm blooded metabolism for energy; and, as luck would have it, nature had just driven another reptile to the skies. The first pterosaurs evolved just in time to provide that extra food, but they also were in competition with the protodragons. Competition drove the protodragons to more efficient designs, and larger sizes, which in turn drove the pterosaurs evolution, very soon ( by evolution's standards) both families had members boasting 15 foot wing spans or greater. While the protodragons, always lead the pterosaurs in the design race, they were fewer in both types of species, and population. Sometimes numbers are the more important factor.

Nature is conservative, so if something works, it is repeated; therefore, it's no surprise that a third vertebrate should develop the power of flight while the protodragons and pterosaurs fought for supremacy. Thus it was that birds took there place in the battle. Being lightweight and agile weren't new in this air war, and neither was warm blood. Both the protodragons and pterosaurs possessed these traits, but the birds did have a new development that gave them an advantage in the battle -- feathers. Feathers provided the birds with lightweight insulation and structural features that allowed the birds to make even more efficient wings faster then the protodragons and pterosaurs. As a result, birds rapidly displaced the smaller pterosaurs and protodragons, and challenged the larger ones. Thus, the populations of pterosaurs and protodragons fell off, birds replacing the small ones. Since the large protodragons were never numerous, this added stress wiped them out, leaving the giant pterosaurs with their incredible gliding abilities the largest creatures in the air and birds the smallest.

And so, the protodragons began the decline that the gliding lizards had seen before them, but one small group of moderate sized protodragons held on in a large river's flood plain. This type of protodragon was a fish eater and hadn't been in competition with the birds and pterosaurs. This was because of the fish that lived in this river. It seems that some of the fish there had developed a shocking new trick -- electricity. Now, not all the fish in the river had this ability. Still, predators only got one chance, grab the wrong fish and you stopped fishing, permanently. Interestingly enough, some of the protodragons proved resistant to their power, and so they passed the trait on to their children. Soon, the main fish-eater on this river was this resistant protodragon.

The ability to eat electric fish had an odd side effect on the protodragons of this river. It seems the electricity must have reacted with their stomach acids to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In most of the protodragons, these byproducts were vented in the normal way, but in a few protodragons, the gases were put to various uses. In many, the oxygen was absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach wall. In some the hydrogen was stored in the gizzard, and in a few it was stored in the hollow bones. These traits gave the exceptions an advantage over the others and soon they had pushed the others out through competition, but mating across these traits eventually resulted in protodragons with all of them.

While this was happening the reason for electrical tolerance was beginning to become apparent. In the concentrated genes of these protodragons, their own electric cells were beginning to form, and with these the new protodragons no longer needed the fish for their hydrogen and extra oxygen. So, these protodragons re-entered the air war. Now, they were bigger than ever before, as a result of their lighter weight and better oxygen production. In time, the efficient energy-producing methods of the electric cells enhanced the energy production of the muscle cells, making them stronger and faster that they had been, without increasing the food requirements. With stronger, lighter, more efficient muscles, the protodragons had finally evolved into the first dragons.

The newly evolved dragons were now able to grow bigger then any protodragon had, and still be able to fly, and grow they did! A few of the early dragons reached lengths of 20 foot and had 50 foot wing spans. While the birds and pterosaurs were no longer major competition, finding food for a flying animal this size was a major problem. Fortunately, the sauropod dinosaurs solved that nicely.

Dragons had continued growing and some were now boasting 70 foot wing spans, and lengths to match. As usual, time and evolution marched on. The Jurassic was beginning to give way to the Cretaceous, and dinosaurs were evolving . The giant, largely defenseless sauropods were giving way to smaller, faster and better-defended forms. With their favorite food vanishing, dragons found themselves evolving to meet the challenge yet again.

The new dinosaurs wielded horns, claws, fangs, and armor, making them a challenge for even the biggest dragons to hunt. This time, however, dragons were ready to adapt to the challenge. So, before they had begun to die out, they where making their comeback, and this time brains, not brawn, would make the difference. While not intelligent by our standards, these dragons had developed in competition with the birds and pterosaurs, since before their electric cells formed. As they were growing, dragons hunted the elusive early mammals, so dragons were the most intelligent creatures of their time. That fact allowed them to take advantage of two things. First, they had learned to cooperate in hunting, joining into flocks or flights, to take down larger prey. Second, they learned to breath fire.

This development was the result of the dragons developing a spark organ in their mouth. Now if the dragons exhale gas from their former gizzard, they could generate an electric spark with this organ to ignite it, and exhale the resulting fireball with air from the lungs. This new weapon made any dinosaur potential prey for the dragons. It also encouraged the development of thicker scales and greater intelligence. The first was to help deflect the occasional near miss by other members of the flight during a hunt, and the second was to minimize those near misses. At least the worst individuals of this new type dragon never passed on their genes. This was because they failed to blow the hydrogen out of their mouths with their lungs, so the fire went back into the gizzard and stomach. The resulting explosions did wonders for filtering the gene pool of the first fire breathing dragons.

That's how the Cretaceous passed with the dinosaurs evolving better defenses, and the dragons growing stronger, and as large and armored as their wings could lift. This was the golden age of innocence for dragons. They were the top predator, peerless, unstoppable, and unaware of the meteor that was about to wipe them out. Ignorance may be bliss, but it wasn't very helpful. The meteor destroyed the giant dragons' food sources, so the giant dragons' rapidly died out. Since their populations had never been large; they couldn't adapt to this new disaster. Still, the smallest most intelligent species of dragons did well in the conflict that followed. As the birds and mammals rushed to fill the gaps in the food chain that were left by the dinosaurs, the small dragons again replaced their larger counter- parts as Earth's top predator.

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