Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Difference between revisions
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The fan-winged dragons in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' evolved from ''[http://www.livescience.com/animals/080715-flying-reptile.html Kuehneosaurus]'' (a real-life lizard that lived in the Triassic and which had "wings" formed from overlong ribs which extended out from its body; it is believed to have used these to parachute from trees). The dragons destroyed their civilization in a war—wiping out the dinosaurs in the process—after which they became peaceful, pastoral creatures. Millions of years later, when human knights and hunters began "slaying" them, they revived their old technology and left Earth for the planet Butane in the Kuiper Belt.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20120312034423/http://badgods.com/mm-ceratosaurus.html this] ''Bad Gods'' comic, a character tries in vain to explain the difference between dinosaurs and dragons.
* Wexter, the T-Rex pet of ''[[Axe Cop]]'' breathes fire, though this may be justified by the sheer number of super-powers invented on the spot for anything and everything.
** There's a scene in ''The Ultimate Battle'' arc that lampshades this. Axe Cop explains that Wexter must be transformed into a dragon and, at Sockarang's protests ("He can already fly and breath fire!"), insists that there's a significant difference between dragons and flying, fire-breathing tyrannosaurs.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* The skull of the pachycephalosaur ''Dracorex hogwartsia'' is housed at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Its name, which means "Hogwarts' Dragon King", was voted on by fans of ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Most visitors probably see past the name.
** Though ''Dracorex'''s [https://web.archive.org/web/20120807033557/http://www.hmnh.org/galleries/deadanimalblog/dracorexhead.jpg head] ''does'' look a lot like a horned dragon, [[Justified Trope|so the name fits in this case]].
* Several Chinese dinosaurs have "long", the Mandarin word for "dragon", in their names, i.e. ''Dilong paradoxus'', ''Guanlong wucaii'', ''Mei long'', ''Yinlong downsi'', and ''Tianyulong confuciusi''. The Chinese word for dinosaur, in fact, is "konglong" (恐龙 or 恐龍, "fearsome dragon.") Translations of dinosaur names into Chinese almost always include "long", in place of the "saurus" - for example, Tyrannosaurus rex is "ba wang long", or "tyrant king dragon". There's also an oviraptorosaur called ''Hagryphus'' ("Ha's gryphon") and Welsh prosauropod called... ''[[Draco in Leather Pants|Pantydraco]]''... (It's... not what it sounds like. It's derived from the Welsh valley "Pant-y-ffynon".
** Sometimes it is applied to non-dinosaurian reptiles as well. "Bakonydraco" is a pterosaur from Hungary; [[wikipedia:Bakonydraco|it doesn't look very much like a dragon though]]
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* Related to the Dragons Are Dinosaurs version of this trope (although nobody could mistake them for dragons): ''Homo floresiensis'' almost instantaneously gained the [[Fan Nickname|nickname]] "Hobbit". A significant number of anthropologists are convinced that a lost race of small people ''have'' to be the basis for little people legends, and absolutely not dwarfism or, uh, people using their imaginations. You could almost hear their collective triumphant shouts of, "See! See!!!"
* Adrienne Mayor argues that fossil discoveries are the source for all the myths about giants, gryphons, and (of course) dragons in her books. It should be said that she has received quite a bit of flack for some of her theories.
** Specifically, if you [[Internet Backdraft|value your life]], don't bring up the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150629123111/http://babbletrish.deviantart.com/art/Gryphons-152819171 Gryphons Are Protoceratops theory]. Though to be fair, the Mediterranean Gryphon—the subject of the theory—is rather different from the modern, highly symbolic [[Mix and Match Critter]] we're all familiar with.
* In a related example, it is said that in ancient China, alchemists often ground dinosaur fossils into powders and used them in traditional herbal medicine believing them to be dragon bones.
** Not just dinosaur fossils, any fossil seems to qualify for "dragon bone" status (Many of them are actually mammal fossils. iirc, the first Gigantopithecus specimens were discovered this way)
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* Kent "Dr Dino" Hovind claims that dinosaurs were dragons, breathed fire, rode on Noah's Ark and may still be alive in remote places (and was possibly the inspiration for the ''[[Waterloo Road]]'' example above). That even ''other creationists'' don't want much to do with Hovind's hypotheses should give you an idea how crazy they are.
** Though some others ''do'' claim dragon legends come from human and dinosaur co-existence (mainly ''young''-earth creationists, as opposed to old-earth or progressive creationists, who are more likely to say that it was just the fossils that were the inspiration). It's just that hardly any make the much larger jump from "dragons are inspired by dinosaurs" to "dinosaurs breathed fire."
* Many of the old, outdated reconstructions of dinosaurs, pterosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles were made to resemble the traditional appearance of dragons. They often sported lizardlike heads with rows of spines running down their backs. Good examples include [http://mysite.verizon.net/markcrowell/mix-battle.jpg the theropod in this picture]{{Dead link}}, [http://mysite.verizon.net/markcrowell/craig-syr.jpg this]{{Dead link}}, [http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/72/Hylaeosaurus.jpg this (somewhat)], and [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LOpbWIPseDg/S0d72d-wb9I/AAAAAAAAAP4/VWfSUyRNy_Q/s400/441076537_47bc319d9b_o.jpg the theropod in this picture], who is also [[Groin Attack|Groin]] [[Badass|Attacking]] his prey. Ironically, the more accurate later dinosaur reconstructions wound up reshaping the way dragons were envisioned, making ''them'' appear more dinosaur-like.
* Played with in one online list of the most likely creatures for dragons to be based on. While the highest-listed creatures on the list were pterosaurs, the rest were living reptiles (or, in one case, a living fish, and in another, an [[It Makes Sense in Context|inanimate object]]).
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