Some Draconologists believe that Dragons were infact just
large prehistoric lizards, which were extremely large and
used their tounges to 'smell'(similar to snakes) And that
ancient man had seen these and drew pictures. Then the
men of later times had seen these pictures and misinterpreted
them, as large fire breathing monsters. This would also
come to the conclusion that there were never any Dragons as we know them.
This I would strongly disagree with. I think, however, that there are Dragons and they did breathe
fire.
Dragons breathe air, like all of the creatures of the land,
and much like other mammals their body would take what it needs to
survive and then expel the gases that were not needed.
But because Dragons spend a lot of there time very high in the
atmosphere, where oxygen is very sparse, their bodies adapted to
using the most abundant gas in Earths atmosphere, Nitrogen.
This would cause the Dragons to expel large amounts of pure oxygen, for it is not needed.
When Dragons drink(water is the most common drink for a dragon)
they only use the one hydrogen for body nutrients. This chemical
reaction caused by the taking of one hydrogen also separates the
oxygen and one hydrogen into separate gases, mix in the Dragons
stomach, which the dragon can 'burp' up. This plus the left over
gases from respiration make a very large amount of flamable material.
The Dragon has two small lumps of tissue in the back of its throat,
inside a crevice, between these two lumps there is a small jolt of electricity that passes
across them constantly. This occurs because there is a large abount of
special nerves within the lumps, and they send messages across to each other
causing electic jolts to span the gap. So when the gases are passed through the mouth,
the electicity ignites them and they create a jet of flame.
Over the crevice there is a large thick membrane that can be controled
conciously by the Dragon. This membrane can open or close over the lumps
of tissue so that the Dragon can breathe through its mouth without having
to breathe fire. Inside the dragons mouth there are several glands which
excrete a extremely strong, non-heat conducting mucus. This mucus lines the inside of
the Dragons mouth so the Dragon does not burn itself when it breathes fire.
Contrary to some Draconologists, Dragons cannot breathe fire through their
noses. And also, contrary to a lot of standard Dragon stories, they do not expel
any smoke. To do this they would have to burn something like wood or coal, where
all of the material can not be burnt, and are passed out as gases.
