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Is it so hard to believe a flying reptile might have existed at one point? In the full tree of life, it doesn't seem incredibly farfetched. We have many flight

by Oarch 4y ago

Is it so hard to believe a flying reptile might have existed at one point? In the full tree of life, it doesn't seem incredibly farfetched. We have many flightless dragon-like animals on earth, and decent evidence of flying reptiles like pterodactyls. Obviously the fire breathing part sounds a little more fictitious.

krapp 4y ago
It is hard to believe a flying reptile existed, was common enough to have inspired myths about dragons around the world, and yet somehow left behind no physical evidence whatsoever. Particularly when you consider how many creatures get lumped into the "dragon" taxonomy. Not all of them fly. Some of them fly, but don't have wings. Arguably, not all of them are even reptiles.
- mysterydip 4y ago
  Didn't flying reptiles exist? We had pterosaurs at one point. The timing doesn't match current understanding, but there's at least a possibility.
  - rickdeckard 4y ago
    The question is, if evolution covers a reptile in feathers to give it better traits for flying and nature selects smaller specimen as flying consumes alot of energy, how much would a flying reptile actually differ from a bird today...?
    - Sharlin 4y ago
      Pterosaurs were entirely distinct and evolved flight independently from the Aves lineage, indeed they weren’t even dinosaurs (they were related to dinosaurs via common superclade Archosauria, like modern reptiles and crocodilians). They generated lift with flaps of skin much more similar to bat wings than bird wings. Had they survived the K/Pg extinction, we might indeed have flying reptiles that don’t look much like wings.
thejohnconway 4y ago
Birds are as much "flying reptiles" as pterosaurs. Animals with powered flight on the reptile branch of the tree stop looking like what most people think of as "reptiles". Powered flight requires a high metabolism, a high metabolism leads to insulation (fur, feathers), furry or feathery animals don't get called reptiles (even if they are, phylogenetically speaking). Pterosaurs almost certainly wouldn't be called reptiles if they existed today.
bell-cot 4y ago
"...and claims that the common traits of dragons seem to be an amalgam of the principal predators of our ancestral hominids...". In forested areas of the world, there usually is* at least one very large feline predator which hunts by climbing up onto tree limbs which extend over a trail, then leaping onto unsuspecting prey as it wanders past. Having a "regularly check for danger above you" instinct in such areas could prove quite beneficial. *Before more-modern humans drove them to, or nearly to, extinction.

by Oarch 4y ago

krapp 4y ago

It is hard to believe a flying reptile existed, was common enough to have inspired myths about dragons around the world, and yet somehow left behind no physical evidence whatsoever. Particularly when you consider how many creatures get lumped into the "dragon" taxonomy. Not all of them fly. Some of them fly, but don't have wings. Arguably, not all of them are even reptiles.

mysterydip 4y ago
Didn't flying reptiles exist? We had pterosaurs at one point. The timing doesn't match current understanding, but there's at least a possibility.
- rickdeckard 4y ago
  The question is, if evolution covers a reptile in feathers to give it better traits for flying and nature selects smaller specimen as flying consumes alot of energy, how much would a flying reptile actually differ from a bird today...?
  - Sharlin 4y ago
    Pterosaurs were entirely distinct and evolved flight independently from the Aves lineage, indeed they weren’t even dinosaurs (they were related to dinosaurs via common superclade Archosauria, like modern reptiles and crocodilians). They generated lift with flaps of skin much more similar to bat wings than bird wings. Had they survived the K/Pg extinction, we might indeed have flying reptiles that don’t look much like wings.

thejohnconway 4y ago

Birds are as much "flying reptiles" as pterosaurs. Animals with powered flight on the reptile branch of the tree stop looking like what most people think of as "reptiles". Powered flight requires a high metabolism, a high metabolism leads to insulation (fur, feathers), furry or feathery animals don't get called reptiles (even if they are, phylogenetically speaking). Pterosaurs almost certainly wouldn't be called reptiles if they existed today.

bell-cot 4y ago

"...and claims that the common traits of dragons seem to be an amalgam of the principal predators of our ancestral hominids...". In forested areas of the world, there usually is* at least one very large feline predator which hunts by climbing up onto tree limbs which extend over a trail, then leaping onto unsuspecting prey as it wanders past. Having a "regularly check for danger above you" instinct in such areas could prove quite beneficial. *Before more-modern humans drove them to, or nearly to, extinction.