"On the Origin of Dragons, all dragons, like every living thing in this world, evolved from some primeval life form through the course of natural selection. I, as a student of Dr. Earnest Drake, do believe, that dragons evolved from some undersea reptile some billion years ago.
Through the process of natural selection, this undersea reptile found fit to evolve into something larger and deadlier, in order to catch prey that was evolving to become larger and deadlier. This was the first dragon. However primitive, this dragon was about three feet long, two feet high, with a serpentine body and four legs. It evolved a muzzle, to catch prey, and teeth to tear them apart. This dragon is believed to be colored blue, in order to blend in with the sea.
Some 85 billion years ago, in the height of the Cretaceous period, this dragon climbed aboard land and evolved to keep up with the gigantic dinosaurs that ruled that land. This dragon began to grow exponentially, growing scales and claws to deal with the deadly new predators. This was called the Dinosaur Dragon. Fossils of it has been found, regular humans believe them to be what are today called Pterodactyls, or Velociraptors. The dragon grew larger to be able to handle itself if ever encountered by the gigantic predators in the dinosaur times.
Wings were evolved to be able to to hunt birds and bugs. The first winged dragons took to the air, with two wings and two legs, a regular dinosaur with wings. Then new features began to grow. Horns, ridges, spiked tails, new colors. As dragons could fly for days on end, and were the apex predator of their food chain, they quickly spread throughout the world. How, you may ask, though, did they survive the event that destroyed the dinosaurs?
Most believe the dragons were more adaptable than other species. To avoid this new catastrophe, dragons plunged back into the sea. Others burrowed into the earth and stayed in caverns beneath the surface of the world. When the extinction of the dinosaurs was over, dragons ventured back onto land. Others stayed in the seas. They became what is known as the legendary sea serpents.
A brief explanation of sea serpents. Two thirds of our planet is covered in water. So this massive amount of space allowed creatures to balloon into explosive proportions. Whales, squids, fish! They became enormous. Sea serpents, with this new room, began to evolve and grew to hunt these gigantic prey.
Land dragons became accustomed to new challenges. Mammals. Mammals were fast, and smart. Dragons developed larger wings, longer legs, and another set of legs. They evolved powerful muscles, and to stay as intelligent as the mammals, their skulls expanded to make more room to for their brains to grow. For their bodies to stay proportionate to their heads, the dragons grew to massive new sizes. When the earth began to grow new regions and climate, dragons adapted. Dragons in the far north like the Polar Night Dragons and the Frost Serpents grew white and blue colors to camouflage themselves among the ice. They grew fur to stay warm. Dragons in the south and desert regions grew bronze colors and the rocky skin to disguise themselves among the sand dunes of the desert.
Most dragons had wings, and having wings meant flying. To support their huge bodies in flight, they had hollow bones that made their skeleton much lighter. There were huge ranges of variety in dragons. Many different colors, spikes, decorations, horns, wing sizes, body sizes, teeth, eye color, personality.
When humans came to the land, dragons were in danger. Most humans thought dragons were monsters.Other thought they were gods. In regions where the humans thought dragons were monsters, they hunted dragons. To adapt to this new challenge, dragons evolved better physical abilities and spikes and horns to fight off the humans. Dragons developed a gland in their throat that produced a flammable gas, that they could breath out in huge quantities. In their back teeth, sparks were generated and every time they breathed out the gas, the sparks ignited the gas and they breathed a stream of fire. Dragons had now sharper horns and sharper teeth to kill these human pests.
When humans evolved, there were knights, dragon hunters, that pursued these wonderful species near into extinction. Dragons evolved toughened scales to keep swords and spears from piercing their hide and created harder claws to slash through the metal armor.
Though there were a wide variety of dragons, all their features were to do one thing. Survive and adapt. Leaping Tree Dragons had long arms and tails to grasp branches and swing themselves overhead. Polar Night Dragons breathed ice instead of fire. Sand Spitter Dragons were the exact color of the sand. Volcano Dragons had hard hides that could not burn. They all evolved to adapt to their ever changing environment.
When humans progresses into the modern age, dragons went into hiding. They lived in caves and crevices in the farthest corners of the world to hide from the humans. These are wonderful creatures, and are all on the cusp of extinction. They must be found and protected."
Submitted for your pleasure by Justin Shen