Do keep in mind that this is just a modern relabeling of folklore, mythology was rarely this pedantic with terminology.
Dragons were just big serpents/lizards that heroes went off to kill, limbs weren't really counted. From there the term was applied to different culture's myths to make it more familiar to people.
I've always liked the idea of dragons being a paraphyletic group where most of the members aren't that closely related, mainly because Chinese dragons were imagined independently from European dragons. Same with Quetzalcoatl.
wererat2000 on April 29th, 2018 at 03:11 UTC »
Do keep in mind that this is just a modern relabeling of folklore, mythology was rarely this pedantic with terminology.
Dragons were just big serpents/lizards that heroes went off to kill, limbs weren't really counted. From there the term was applied to different culture's myths to make it more familiar to people.
SummerAndTinkles on April 29th, 2018 at 03:37 UTC »
I've always liked the idea of dragons being a paraphyletic group where most of the members aren't that closely related, mainly because Chinese dragons were imagined independently from European dragons. Same with Quetzalcoatl.
Numella on April 29th, 2018 at 04:00 UTC »
Quetzalcoatl is a pretty specific jump but I won't argue with it :D