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Date Posted: 11:17:32 07/15/05 Fri
Author: pgi
Subject: Draconology, the science of dragons

Draconology, the science of dragons, is a dying specialty - literally. It's one practitioner, Dr. Volodimir Kapusianyk, 98, currently resides in a nursing home in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

For Several years, he has been trying to write the definitive draconology textbook, but ill health has kept from completing more than the foreword. In the hope that someone will take up the torch of draconology from his falling hand, Dr. Kapusianyk has asked to InQuest magazine to print his foreword, reasoning that their readers must include many whom already interested in dragons.

I take personal initiative to put this on my page, knowing that on Internet there are many dragon lovers that, maybe some, will continue his work.

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Dragons: Our Fiery Friends

By Volodimir Kapusianyk, Ph.D.
Foreword

Relegated to myth by many cultures, dragons did, in fact, exist - but now, alas, are extinct, the last having died in captivity in 1911 in a small traveling zoo in Nebraska, where, as a teenager, I saw it. It was pitiful creature, scrawny, barely 8 feet long, not a wisp of smoke coming from it, and, greatest indignity of all, mistakenly labeled a "Rare Winged Garter Snake." But I knew better, and on that fateful day chose to devote my life to the study of these magnificent creatures.

Many critics deride draconology, claiming a creature like a dragon, apparently reptilian yet able to fly and breath fire, is scientifically impossible.

The key, however, is that phrase "apparently reptilian." Yes, dragons looked reptilian - but they were not. They were, in fact, a phylum unto themselves, like no other creature that ever walked the Earth.

This textbook contains all I have learned or theorized about dragons. Chapter 2, for example, deals with flight. To fly, a creature must generate enough lift to counteract the force of gravity exerts on its mass. To fly really well, you must maximize lift and minimize mass. Dragons' huge wings generated plenty of lift, and they minimized their mass in two ways.

First, their bones, like birds', were almost hollow. Second, they were made, not of the usual mixture of calcium and other minerals, but from long chain of hydrocarbon: a natural form of very strong, very light plastic which also formed their incredibly tough scales (Chapter 9).

In fact, their whole bodies were awash in hydrocarbons. They had large internal bladders filled with methane, a natural byproduct of digestion in human, and more so in dragons. Methane is lighter than air, so this bladder, like a giant internal balloon, reduced mass (and enhanced flight) even more.

Methane is also flammable, and dragons evolved a way to spew flaming methane for defensive purposes (Chapter 14). Study of dragon fossils (Chapter 5) reveals that dragons had a specialized organ in the roof of their mouth in which a jagged nugget of iron, coalesced from iron in the dragon's bloodstream, hung suspended with pieces of flint, which the dragon ingested as needed. When the dragon exhaled methane, the iron and flint tumbled around, generating sparks, which ignited the gas.

Dragons' peculiar body chemistry also made their blood highly corrosive (Chapter 10). Essentially, they were walking chemical factories, their bloodstream filled with toxic waste.

Finally, in Chapter 21, we will examine in detail how dragons' growing dependence for food on virgins provided by local villagers made them fat, lazy and easy prey for glory-hungry knights, who drove them into a long, slow decline that ended at last with the death of that poor, bedraggled specimen in Nebraska.

Draconology is a difficult but rewarding field of study. I hope you enjoy your journey through it

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Replies:

Re: Draconology, the science of dragons -- souldragon, 17:49:50 08/04/06 Fri
- Re: Draconology, the science of dragons -- Tim, 14:29:46 08/11/06 Fri
Re: Draconology, the science of dragons -- Sean, 12:53:08 05/13/07 Sun