THE SKELETON
The Western dragon Eudraco magnificus occidentalis has a sturdy skeleton
structure. Large head, long neck, broad shoulders, thick legs, strong tail, and very
large wings. The dragon's bones are very strong, but hollow and light. A dragon's jaw
is large to accommodate the very strong muscles around it. The dragon is able to
dislocate its jaw, as some snakes are able to do, to grab large objects. The dragon
has two types of teeth because of it being an omnivore (It will eat meat and plant food).
The canine and incisor teeth of a dragon are long and razor sharp, but also have
molars to chew their food instead of eating it whole. The shoulder bones are thick to
handle the large wing muscles needed to fly. The wing "finger" bones are very long to
wrap the thin flight membrane taut around them. There are many species of Western
dragon, and this is only one example explaining the different bones of the skeletal
system.
 
 

The Oriental (or Eastern) dragon Dracoserpens Lung orientalis has a extremely
long, thin skeleton structure. It has a medium sized head, very long neck, short legs,
small hips, and a long tail. This skeleton is very maneuverable because of the shape,
such as a long snake is. It can twist and turn its body in all sorts of ways. This type of
dragon does not have hollow bones, and the dragon's skeleton is thin because it
doesn't need the mass to accommodate flight muscles. This dragon does not have any
type of wings as it flies with earth-magic verses brute strength.
 
 
MUSCLES
Western dragons have many more muscles then their Eastern cousins. This is mainly
due to their massive flight muscles that have to lift their weight into the sky with the
thrust of their wings. The main wing muscles are the Supraspinatus and Flexor alae
major. Notice that the actual wing does not have many major muscles, it is all near the
chest area. Other large muscles account for a very strong tail, and rear legs. The
Western dragon could easily hold a human male's weight while in flight. Also it should be noticed that the large jaw muscle Masseter, can easily crush bones.
 

OUTSIDE OF THE BODY
The dragon can be a huge creature depending on the breed. The one being used as an example is roughly 120 feet long with a wingspan of 135 feet. This type of dragon has extremely small ears, large eyes, spines down its back, and a bone-type spade at the end of its tail. All dragon breeds are different. Some have long ears, and no spade, and some have a fleshy-type triangle-shaped spade. This particular of dragon also does not have scales, it has tough leathery skin. Most dragons have scales of some sort.
 

SCALES
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 to be as tough as they can get takes about one year after being hatched.

COLOR
Scale color is determand by the genes of the parent dragons. Usually only red
dragons will mate with other red dragons, etc. But if a mating took place between a
gold and a green dragon, the result might be a bronze colored offspring. Scales on a
dragon are never simply one shade of color. If a dragon is blue, there will be many,
many shades of blue. Light, medium, dark, blue-black, etc. Scales are bright and shiny
in a healthy dragon, but dull and muted if a dragon is ill.
 

CAMOUFLAGE
In some breeds of dragons when the dragon is mature, the cells in the scales are able
to change color such as a chameleon due to chromatophore, the pigment cells in the
scales.This reaction can be caused by emotion (anger, happiness,etc) or by the will of
the dragon to change color. If the dragon is angered it can change from its original
color to a bright, fierce color such as red, to look more intimidating or during mating
rituals, it can flow certain color patterns on its body to attract other dragons. Since
dragons are extremely intelligent, it can choose which colors to change into to match
the exact background it is near including subtle shadow and highlights. It is so good at
this, most things would just walk past a 65 foot dragon hiding in the sand.
 

A DRAGON'S ARMOR
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 their
bodies. 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.
 
 

THE WING
The wing. The part of the dragon that distinguishes itself from all other creatures. The
dragon wing is a huge, leathery appendage that is found on several different species
of dragon. The wing is usually larger than the dragon's body to accommodate the
incredible force needed to lift and maintain flight.

BONES
The wing is essentially another arm and hand. If you look at the skeleton of a dragon
front arm and claws, you will notice that the wing is just a very stretched out version.
The two thick "arm bones" (humerus and wing radius) runs from the body of the
dragon attaching itself with cartilage and muscle to an "elbow" of the wing. There are
usually 4 or 5 elongated "fingers" on a wing each ending in a claw. One short "thumb"
claw is at the "wrist". The "fingers" then attach themselves to the "wrist joints" to form
the complete wing.

HOW DO THEY FLY?
The actual force of flight is the continuous down sweep of powerful wings scooping,
and thrusting the body upwards. An immature dragon does not have the strength
needed for a vertical jump from flat ground to take off. They will usually stay near
higher cliffs to use the heat updrafts to keep aloft. It takes a few years of flying to build
the extremely strong flight muscles needed to lift the dragon body from the ground.
The wings make actually look small for the mass of the dragon, but all dragons have
an innate magic ability to help them fly. This magic helps keep dragons from straining
themselves during long flights.

WEAPONS
Dragons can also use their wings as an attack weapon if need be, but this is a last
resort. The wing membranes are easily damaged compared to the rest of a dragon
body. If a dragon wing membrane is slashed, it takes a very long time to heal, and
there is a chance the dragon might never fly again if it does not heal correctly. If
attacked on the ground, the dragon will usually run then jump in the air and fly off
avoiding the attacker. But if the dragon is trapped on the ground it will tuck its wings
tightly against its body and use its breath weapon and claws to protect itself. If the
dragon has to use its wings to attack it will scoop down and slash with its razor sharp
wing claws to immobilize the attacker.

SENSES
Dragons have the same senses as humans; sight, hearing, smelling, touch, and taste.
But some have a sixth 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 sense is 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 dragonfear comes from. Dragonfear 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-existant.

THE FIRE BREATHERS
Fire: the thing that makes the dragon most feared. It's a hellish belch of flame that can
turn flesh and bone into ash. Though, not all dragons breath fire. Some have freezing
cold breath, others have acid, and some don't use their breath as a weapon at all!

HOW DO THEY BREATH FIRE?
It all starts when the dragon catch their prey. When dragons eat, they digest the food
in a regular stomach. The digestion then continues in a second stomach that breaks
down the food even further. After the dragon's body has used all it can from the
second digestion, the body then turns the leftover food and acid into a byproduct of
hydrogen. The dragon can hold the hydrogen in various large glands in it's body for
later use, and can call upon it at any time it needs to. When the dragon needs to belch
it's flame, the glands release the hydrogen into the lungs where it mixes with other
various chemicals the body creates. Once this mixture finds oxygen, it burns extremely
hot, and very quick. The dragon usually has enough hydrogen in its body for about
three spits of flame, but that should be plenty for anything coming up against a large
red dragon. This explanation is about the same for dragons that breath other types of
breath. Their bodies just break down food into different compounds. For another
explination of firebreathing, please read this explination by Firefenix.

CONCLUSION
I hope you enjoyed your little trip into the physiology of a dragon. Remember, all
dragons are different, so if you dissagree with this study, no one can tell you that you
are wrong. This is just one look at this wonderful creature and I hope that this might
stir your imagination to make up your own mythology of the dragon.
 
BACK