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To a site dedicated to the mythical beast- the dragon.

All images on these pages belong to the orginal artist. So please feel free to visit the Fantasy Artist Links page to view the sources. Thank you.

Eyes:

General Physiology:

Skeleton:

Muscles:

Skin:

Scales:

Color:

CAMOUFLAGE

A DRAGON'S ARMOR

Wings:

Flight:

Senses:

Claws:

Draconite

Feeding & Digestion:

Teeth:

Blood:

The dragon is a homoiothermic reptile. In other words, he is a warm-blooded creature and his body temperature is controlled internally. This characteristic enables him to adapt to the different climates of his very extensive habitat and to maintain his activities both day and night throughout the year, as he is not dependent on the warmth from the sun like the other reptiles. The dragon generally has wings, and his bones are hollow, for lightness. There are dragons, usually ancient survivor from the distant past, with stumpy legs and no wings. These rare survivors of a remote era are intelligent and fairly aggressive, and belong to a single species known as "worm of the deep", a species on the verge of extinction. This creature lives for a very long time. There are records of dragons who have lived for five hundred and even a thousand years, but there are no knows cases of dragons who have died from old age. On the other hand, they died from accidents, certain diseases, or as a result of the actions of their most relentless enemy: MAN.

The eyes come in two flavors: with a round pupil or with a vertical slit. This is just a small detail because they both work the same way and they both have much in common with a standard camera. The light first pass through the cornea, the main source of refraction, then it pass through the lens which controls 1/3 of the refraction of light that enters the eye (the cornea, the other 2/3). Located just behind the pupil it allows for changing of focus from distance to near objects by altering its shape. This changing focus is called accommodation. As a person ages the lens hardens and accommodation becomes more difficult. Finally, the lights reach the retina that contains photoreceptors (rods and cones) that change light into sight by converting light into electrical impulses. These electrical messages are sent from the retina to the brain and interpreted as images.

The iris is the colored part of the eye has very fine muscles to control the size of the pupil and thus the intensity of the light (in conjunction with the eyelids). Being able to reduce the pupils to slits rather than tiny circles gives the creature a greater and more accurate control of how much light enters their eyes; this ability is particularly important in bright sunlight. Vertical slits also have an advantage over horizontal slits. When the creature's eyelids close at right angles to the vertical pupil, he can reduce the amount of light even further by bringing its eyelids closer and closer together. This combination of the vertical slits of the pupils and the horizontal slits of the eyelids, allows the creature to make the most delicate adjustments of the light reaching its eye compared to any other animal.

Also, many animals also have an additional structure called the tapetum - a reflective layer that lies under the retina and acts as a mirror, bouncing light back toward the retina a second time. Dogs, cats, horses, and cattle all possess them. This allows them to function under dim lighting better than humans. Cats, for instance, are five times better at detecting light than humans.

This is probably the most plausible situation, while is contain nothing new, this type of eyes has a long history of great functionally and an acceptable field of perception. However, this type of eyes possess only a 0.02 degree of visual range (i.e. there is only a small point in the picture where everything is clear. As you read this line, the paragraph above is blurred and cannot be read until you move the focus of your eyes on it).

Eyes made from a mosaic of lens (insect-like eyes):

As opposite to the vertebrate eyes, the image is in fact many small "independant" units that will together form the image. Each small lens point toward a different direction and thus can view a wide angle. A vertebrate eye has 0.02 degree of visual range (ie where objects appear clear and sharp) but since each lens of the composite eye is relatively large, this eye has a poor visual acuity. The image is crude but still recognizable. However, the main reason why large creatures do not have composite eyes, it is because this type of eyes generally allows only a short range of vision. Flies and mosquitoes are very near-sighted, and can see only a few millimeters in front of them with any degree of resolution. Also, although the insect depth of focus is very short, it is nevertheless very broad. The near-sightedness of insects is so extreme that they see detail where we would need a microscope to see. On the other hand, in the human eye, the fovea, or area of sharpest focus, is only as big as our thumb.

No slit at all; eyes appearing like a crystal ("crystalline" eyes)?

Think about the pernese dragons. How are they able to see something? In fact, the best explanation is there is no retina but instead the light receptors are distributed homogeneously in the eyes. This means a photoreceptor near the surface can see the object far away and you go deeper into the eyes, the photoreceptors are able to view objects that are closer.

This would also means that the eyes are always focused no matter the distance of the object (I admit this could seem very strange for most of us, but imagine a photo where the close objects are as sharp and crisp as the objects far away).

However, this do not give the same precision as a retina since the dragon cannot have a dense quantity of receptors without blocking the light; a dense quantity of cells would block the light for the layers deeper in the eye (to some extant, in fact, cells are almost totally transparent).

As said above, the advantage would be to be to always have the close and far object focused at the same time and having a great deep perception even with a single eye. I explain, for human and some other creatures having a binocular vision, this is extremely useful for evaluating deepness but if your eyes are focussed on every distance all the time and if your brain is able to tell which signals from which "layer" of photoreceptors, then the brain no longer need two eyes to know the "exact" distance between the creature and an object. This would allow the dragon to have his eyes slightly more on the side and have a greater angle of view without sacrificing their ability to determine deepness.

Another advantage would be to increase the angle of the eyes, bird have their eyes on each side and human right in front. We humans with our eyes squarely in the front of our heads, can see about 180 degrees, but we need to direct our eyes into the direction of the object to have a clear picture. The crystalline type of eyes would be focused not only for object of all range but also in all directions, this means once you come into their angle of vision, it is like if the dragon was looking directly at you all the time while we cannot describe very well a person standing in the corner of our vision.

The main disadvantage would be their inability to have one point where all their light receptors can be gathered. Owls for example have a very dense retina and this allow them to see small creatures (such as mice) even if they are very far from them. In a crystalline eye, this situation cannot exist, they can have a good visual acuity but not as high as the animals that are renown for their vision. Does this means a dragon with such eyes cannot have a great vision? Absolutely not, again, we humans have a vision angle of 180 degree and about 140 degrees of binocular overlap. Dragons with crystalline eyes could have an angle of vision around 220 degree (i.e. the eyes slightly on the side) and an overlaps of 110 degree. The object inside the overlapping degrees of both eyes would greatly increase the resolution of the object while the remaining angle of vision would be less defined (but much better defined than the visual acuity of the corner of our eyes). The degree where the vision of the dragon overlap would be equivalent to the area of sharpest focus and would be obviously much greater than our.

Glowing crystalline eyes?

Glowing eyes without slit are nonsense, I have see some trying to explain the phenomena but their explanation contain several flaws that make the theory highly questionable. Let face it, this is often used to show good/bad guys in manga and other cartoon but this remains very unrealistic. In fact, if the creature had an iris, it would be the reflection on the iris that would give the impression of glowing eyes. This is where the idea came from but as you all surely noticed, the "glowing" eyes of a cat in the dark do not really glow; it is just a reflection of the light. Now, imagine now that your pupil would glow, you would literally blind yourself by the light emitted but also by the reflection of this light back to you. The best example I can give is at night when you are inside your house, if you look outside with all the lamp turned on, the glass in the window will acts like mirror. In other words, if you need to look outside, it is easier when there is no light inside. Same thing for the eyes, if you have a light source inside the eye, this would 1) blind you by activating the photoreceptors around the light source, and 2) your own cornea would behave like a mirror and reflect you back the light you emitted thus blinding you even more. In a crystalline eye, the light emitted by the "crystalline" liquid would trigger photoreceptors that are surrounding the light source thus completely blinding the creature in the process.

Scales (and horns/claws) on a dragon are densely packed cells made up of keratin, a tough fibrous protein. When born, a dragon's scales are as soft as tissue paper, and slowly harden while the dragon grows. The iron from the blood, or vegetable matter the dragon eats is absorbed by the dragon's blood stream and mixed with the keratin to create steel-hard scales. The process of getting scales as tough as they can get takes about one year after being hatched.

Chinese Dragon: The number of scales on a Chinese dragon was considered a matter of great importance, and some insist that the scales of a true dragon numbered exactly 81. According to Chinese philosophy the number of Yang is nine, which Yang is one part of the two interlocking principles of the universe; Yang represents Heaven, Light, Vigor, and Masculinity; while Yin represents Earth, Darkness, Passivity and Feminity, and is associated with the number six. However other experts argue that the dragon is both yang and yin, meaning that the number of scales is 117, made up of 81(9 times 9) imbued with Yang and 36(6 times 6) with Yin. Under the chin of a dragon, certain scales were sharp and grew backwards; for a mortal to touch these scales meant certain death.

The main function of scales is protection of the soft skin tissue of the dragon. An adult dragon can easily take a direct blow from a knight's sword and hardly flinch. Adult dragons have 4-6 inch wide, and 7-9 inch long teardrop shaped scales covering its body. The pattern of the body scales is a flat, rotating design that overlap each other. Easy movement is due to the unique depression on the top side of each scale that allows them to lay evenly flat on the body.

The scales on the chest area are the largest; easily being over a foot wide. The chest scales are one to three flat "scale flaps". These are shaped differently than a regular scale as they are more squarish. The pattern of the chest scales is overlapping and flat running from the throat, under body to the end of the tail. All of the scales lightly slide over each other, so when a dragon walks it will make a soft scraping sound. The overlapping scales make it difficult for anything to successfully injure a dragon.

An interesting fact is that the dragon can make the scales stand on end for washing. Also, when angered, the dragon can puff up, spread its scales, and look a lot larger than the dragon actually is. Lifting the scales is also an effective heat reducing element. Making the scales stand on end allows the skin underneath to release heat, thus cooling the large animal down quickly. A favorite past-time of dragons is to stand the scales up and go into a cool pool of water to allow it to run in between the scales and onto the sensitive skin.

Dragons have the same senses as humans; site, hearing, smelling, touch, and taste. But some have a six sense which is being able to "read" the emotion of another being. Their regular five senses are incredibly sensitive. For example, the sense of smell is about 100 times more sensitive than a bloodhound dog. They can smell and hear a person or animal from a couple miles away!

Their six senses are very accurate at close range. If a person or animal is feeling a strong emotion, such as fear or hate, it will register very strongly to the dragon, even if it is not in visual range of it. This is where dragon fear comes from. Dragon fear is an all encompassing, frozen-in-place fear that the dragon causes upon the animal or person seeing a dragon. The dragons sometimes use this advantage to beat its foes, such as thieves or knights. Only the very bravest (or very dim-witted) are not affected by this terrible fear. This is usually an aura around evil-minded dragons, but in a friendly dragon, such as the Faerie Dragon, this aura is non-existent.

Draconite is the dragon stone. In Western culture this is a precious stone, said to be found in the head of a dragon. The Chinese also had references to precious stones from dragons. Dragon were said to have a pearl under their chin. In the Sun Kwang-hien a blue object with lines was found in front of the dragon's horns. Perhaps another form of dragon stone.

The dragon pearl was said to aid a dragon in flying. The western dragon stone was also said to have magical properties. For those that believe in magic, this is the most likely contender for the source of a dragon's magical powers. For those that do not believe in magic, possible the stone had something to do with the dragon's breath. In flame breathers, it may have acted to ignite the vapour, or it may have acted to filter the vapour in some way. It would be dangerous for the dragon to store strong venom all the time. Having a mechanism to filter out excess water just prior to releasing the venom, would allow it to be stored at a much more dilute level.

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