Comet impact: the origin of dragon myths?

Found this article on dragons and thought it was interesting so i wanted to dupe it and share it for discussion.

original article can be found Comet impact: The Origen of the Dragon??

Dragon - a mythical monster, usually represented as a large reptile with wings and claws, breathing out fire and smoke. (Webster's New World Dictionary)

There are dragon or serpent monster myths found in practically every culture on Earth (for simplicity, I will refer to serpent monsters as dragons). Usually in these myths, the dragons were capable of great destruction with wind and fire.

Why haven't any dragon fossils ever been found?

There are literally thousands of animal fossil species that have been found but there has not been a single dragon fossil ever found! The world is full of dragon myths and this would suggest that there were an abundance of dragons at some time in history and if so, there should be fossils or some kind of physical evidence. Since there isn't any physical evidence, the only logical conclusion is that dragons did not exist.

What were dragons?

It is quite possible that dragons were comets. So what do dragons and comets have in common? Dragons were depicted as serpents with wings and could fly through the sky. They had a head and a long body. Likewise, comets have a head and a long body and appear to fly through the sky. The chief Mayan god was "Kukulkan" which literally meant "feathered serpent". A comet has a long body but the body fans out as if it has feathers. A "feathered serpent" is a perfect description of a comet. See pictures of comets




Why are there dragon myths found in almost all cultures on Earth?

In order for dragon legends to be so widespread, there must have been an event that was common to all areas of the Earth. The only thing that looks like a flying serpent, could be seen by every person in the world, and be able to cause global destructive effects would be an impact on the Earth by a comet. If this did happen at some remote time in history, all of the people on Earth would have seen the comet (dragon) moving through the stars and each night it would have gotten bigger and bigger until it had a tail that stretched all the way across the sky. The sight of this monstrous flying serpent monster must have struck terror in all of the people of Earth. Relatively few people would have witnessed the impact of the comet but soon afterward, the entire Earth would have been bombarded by burning rocks falling from the sky. The sky would have darkened from the smoke of the impact and all of the fires started around the world. The darkness would have lasted for months and the crops everywhere on Earth would have failed. There would have been widespread starvation and disease. Every culture would have experience the terrible after effects of the comet impact. If there had been an advanced civilization at that time (Atlantis perhaps), it would have fallen apart as its people were reduced to a hand to mouth existence. Many generations later, the knowledge and culture from the previous civilization would have disappeared but each generation would tell stories about the monstrous flying serpent that caused so much destruction.

Mod edits: Removed all caps title. Added External source tags.
Please don't simply copy and paste material from other sites. Add your own thoughts and take on the article.

[edit on 5-7-2009 by Gemwolf]

Just to offer some points:

1. Comets don't travel through the stars. They appear motionless against the sky.

2. I'll buy the image of a comet as a feathered serpent, but I don't buy the idea that everyone immediately thought of a reptilian creature for it... unless we are already predisposed to assume bad things are reptilian in nature.

3. Comets don't leave chunks of anything behind, the sublimate is very fine and not very massive at all - I disremember the exact figure, but Halley's comet loses only 1/100,000 of its mass as it streaks in every 70-something years... not enough to create any massive rocks falling from the sky.

To run with that - lets say a comet impacted with earth instead. NatGeo claims the average minicomet is about 40 tons.

5. Tunguska impact never hit the ground and flatten 1200 miles of forest.

Do you have any real folkloric information or research to back this up?

as i stated i did not write this article, i come across it whilst having a look at a few things and thought it was an interesting view point on Dragons and thought i would post it for discussion as to whether people here would have thought it to be a realistic viewpoint on the dragon folklore

reply to post by ronishia
It's an interesting idea. As your OP points out, dragons are described by virtually every nation on Earth. Britain and China have probably the greatest traditions of dragons. In Britain dragons were claimed to exist until only 300 years ago. Several noble families had myths that involved slaying dragons. IIRC the last dragon in England was slain on the banks of the River Mersey near Liverpool by a local Lord. There's a lot of dragon tales of Britain here...British Dragon Gazetteer

It's intriguing how the concept of dragons arose and how they became taken as real. The most plausible explanation I've read involves dinosaur bones. As dino fossils and teeth were discovered or traded the myth of a dragon arose to explain them. As is the usual method of human folklore...the stories were embellished and passed on. As each account was disseminated, they took on a sheen of reality. From an unsubstantiated shaggy dog tale, the stories would have followed the roots of urban folklore. "A friend of a friend heard about this dragon...etc" A returning crusader could bring back a large dinosaur tooth as evidence that he slew a dragon.

What's more interesting is the uniformity of dragon accounts..wings and firey breath. I'd be fascinated to know how they came about