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Jose Luis Rodriguez Plasencia, “El Lagarto de Calzadilla y otras Historias de Lagartos.” Revista de Folklore 321, 2007. 101.
The dragon was never merely a mythical creature in the time that people believed in them. They were always an understanding or misunderstanding of dinosaurs or animals we know now to be crocodiles. The dragon as a species was relegated to myth only because the first modern paleontologists created the new genus of dinosauria rather than choosing to reinterpret and update our understanding of the dragon. Even our childhood visions of dinosaurs will become only fantastical imaginings if it is discovered that all dinosaurs in fact were feathered. And if a new name were to be selected for this newer interpretation, then the dinosaur itself would become nothing but a fantasy of our less knowledgeable ancestors, the same treatment the dragon as a “species” received. The inspiration for the concept of dragons across the world is without doubt the discovery of dinosaur bones. It was European encounters with the descendants of dinosaurs, the crocodiles, however, that cemented the Western belief in dragons even further. Encounters with these archosaurians perpetually spurred the creation of new legends, some, at least, very likely based on real events. Such encounters made the dragon a very real creature to early Europeans, and if we ourselves considered any large man-eating reptile to be a dragon, then dragons would be very real to us as well. Bibliography Discourse on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe, and on the Changes They Produced in the Animal Kingdom] Henry De la Beche (1796-1855, GSL memb no.426)wasintended for a career in the military like his father, but after being accused of encouraging ‘a dangerous spirit of Jacobinism’ amongst the other cadets, he was thrown out of the Royal Military College at Marlow in 1811. By 1812 he had moved to Lyme Regis where he met others who encouraged his interest in geology. Amongst his acquaintances were the Anning family who were just establishing their business selling fossils to tourists in the fashionable seaside resort.Old Town Hall of Brno, Brno Tourist Informations. Accessed May 1, 2018, http://www.brnoinfo.com/old-town-hall/ Raziye Akkoc, “Bristol Crocodile could survive British waters, Experts say.” The Telegraph, (June 26, 2014) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10928244/Bristol-crocodile-could-survive-British-waters-experts-say.html Adrienne Mayor. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2000. 35. The skull of the Draco-Rex resembles many interpretations of medieval dragons. Photograph from Indianapolis Children’s Museum.
Books about geological phenomena for a general audience, like this survey on volcanoes and earthquakes, were very popular. First published in Paris in 1866 as part of as series called Bibliothèque des Merveilles (Library of Wonders), Zurcher and Margollé’s little volume of geological marvels covered volcanoes from Etna and Vesuvius in Italy to those in the Americas and the Pacific and Indian Oceans – and even those on the moon. Geology and the earth's past had become a source of great fascination. Man is a species suffering from amnesia, it has forgotten entirely the food chain and that it was not always placed atop it. The dragon represents the vague memory of the innate fear of our ancestors. The mouse fears the cat because it is it’s prey so to were our ancestors once prey when all of humankind faced off against the crocodile for survival. If man was to survive it had to drink water, whether it be from a river, or lake the crocodile waited for him. Man did not know which day would be his last, only that death waited for him, and that on the day of its choosing the writhing terror would swallow him and drag him into the abyss. Louise W. Lippincott. “The Unnatural History of Dragons ” Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 77, no. 334. 1981. 4. Smith, Helena. “World’s Greatest Crocodile Hunters Fails to Catch ‘Sifis’ Crete’s Fugitive Reptile.” The Guardian. September 2, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/02/crocodile-hunter-olivier-behra-fails-catch-sifis-crete-rethymnonIron pyrite is a common mineral composed of iron and sulphide (FeS2) and when exposed to humidity, the sulphide component oxidizes to form, amongst other things, sulphuric acid which can break down the matrix of a fossil. I love the way Scott Bruce has scoured so much ancient lore to bring us this treasury of dragon-related information, and I shall turn to it frequently.”― Philip Pullman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Golden Compass
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