Originally posted by Yog the Sloth
It claims they ate limestone, which when digested produced gases (Oxygen or hydrogen I think. Assuming HCl as the stomach acid, would the chemistry
not be 2HCl + 2CaCO2=H2 + 2CaCl + 2CO2, or is limestone CaCO3, I cant remember) which they retained to inflate, so that they could fly despite their
cumbersome body mass. It also posits a gland in the roof of the mouth which produces an electrical spark, which enables them to ignite the gases to
breathe fire. This was used to control landing, as well as in combat.
Sorry this is outdated but I can't resist a bit of chemistry talk...
Limestone is CaCO3, which means that the equation would overall be:
2HCl + CaCO3 -> CaCl2 + H2O + CO2.
Now water and CaCl2 can react exothermically, which would produce a canny bit of heat (hence why its classed as an irratant to moist skin - and it can
produce burns)
Theoretically, this heat may somehow be able to be converted to fire... If something existed to produce a spark.
But the creature would have to have a massively insulated mouth and oesophagus.
Either way, I only searched this coz me and my mam were arguing about whether or not they could've existed in the past...
Now, lets say they did... (which I don't
really agree with - I think maybe fear of dino skeletons combined with not knowing much about science
at the time... And believing that God wouldn't let any of his creatures die out, therefore they must still exist somewhere... Could be an honest
mistake, but you never know. I could be proven wrong!)
But yeah, if they did exist and ate limestone (nice diet plan
) then when they died, this limestone wouldn't be in their system anymore to carry
out the reaction and if their stomach acid was horrendously strong then that could burn everything out... But then again, you've got the problem of
the wings and stuff, you'd need a hell of a leak to burn off a WHOLE dragon. Plus CaCl2 is a solid, so they'd need to cough that up when they needed
it and probably have to store it somewhere else in the meantime...
Then again, if people back then were scared of them, they might've cremated them. You know, to stop them getting back up from death. *Shrugs* Who
knows.
I just thought I'd chip in since it's an interesting subject, even on an old thread. Sorry if someones corrected the limestone thing before, I just
got blinded by chemistry equations (very, very sad of me) and had to jump in and reply.
Let's all go comb the Welsh countryside (partly in answer to dragonwind918) and see if we can find existence of dragons. I'm open to being proven
wrong, after all! Although, lets not... Coz that'd prove my mam right and I'd really hate that!
But still, I think that 'mythical' is probably the best title for dragons. At least for now.
A.
Edit because I'd finished reading the thread
And because my typo's are horrendous.
[edit on 21-12-2009 by Ayana]
[edit on 21-12-2009 by Ayana]