How Dragons Could Breathe Fire

A defining feature of dragons is the ability to produce and project, or breath fire. Biologically, this could be something like a defense mechanism, or a tool, in the way that birds use beaks. Animals tend to develop such tools to obtain and prepare food, which, if we’re accepting that fire-breath could be possible, what might an animal need fire for? It is often pondered how that might be possible, but I think in order to get to that, we must first ask why?

It is apparent in Western-European culture that dragons and serpents are frequently symbolic of evil and darkness. Satan, in Christian history, is often portrayed as a great serpent or dragon, and dragons are a common motif in Christian art. Even in non-religious literature and media, dragons are still at least dangerous and scary creatures. “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” - Revelation 12:9

Projecting a dangerous substance from the mouth is not entirely fantasy. The culprit and source of these exaggerations may have been snakes that can spit venom from their fangs. This feature exists in several species of cobras and vipers (note, again, vipers being related in descriptions of dragons, partly responsible for the Wyvern. I wrote about that here:// ).

We know that many animals today even distant from each other in the family tree have the ability to produce and use venom, from jellyfish, to lizards, to arachnids. But we aren’t seeing any dragons out there today. Only recently has it been proven that Indonesia’s Komodo dragons use venom to slow and kill their prey. But we have to look far back in time, when dragon lore was stemmed. Did some dinosaurs use venom?

While we still don’t know everything about dinosaurs, and new discoveries are constantly being made, we didn’t know whether or not dinosaurs could have used venom for a long time. In 2009, a team led by Empu Gong studied a very well-preserved Sinornithosaurus skull, and discovered several features suggesting it may have been the first dinosaur to be identified as venomous. Sinornithosaurus (name meaning “Chinese bird-lizard”) was a small feathered dromaeosaurid (raptor) and a very early distant cousin of the modern birds. Gong says that its teeth are unusually large and “so long and fang-like that the animal appears to be saber-toothed”, similar to back-fanged snakes like boomslangs and vine snakes.

Gong and colleagues noted that the unusually long and fang-like mid-jaw (maxillary) teeth had prominent grooves running down the outer surface, towards the rear of the tooth, a feature seen only in venomous animals. They also interpreted a cavity in the jaw bone just above these teeth as the possible site for the soft-tissue venom gland. Gong and colleagues suggested that these unique features indicated that Sinornithosaurus may have specialized in hunting small prey such as birds, using its long fangs to penetrate feathers and envenomate and stun the prey, like a snake would.

Bioluminescence is the emission of light by living organisms, who produce it themselves. It is a feature that occurs wildly in marine life, invertebrates, fungi, and bacteria. In the case of some animals, the light is actually produced by a symbiotic organism. Many stories exist of a small flying reptile called the “ropen” that comes from the jungles of New Guinea, thought to be a surviving species of pterosaur. Coincidentally, sightings by the natives consistently report that this creature is able to emit light, like a bioluminescent animal. This “glow”, appearing in a red color, terrifies the witnesses at night. The ropens are also described to have a long beak with teeth, and a “snake-like tail”. While this doesn’t necessarily prove to be dragon related, it would seem bioluminescence offers another possibility of where the fire-breathing myth comes from.

Breathing fire is certainly a stretch. Regardless of source, ignition, and range, fire would be difficult to control. We [humans] use fire as a tool, we are able to control it under certain circumstances, but never to manipulate the flame itself. A flame could not be controlled, especially in flight, for example, without a competent creature at the helm, something with an instinctive knowledge and skill controlling such a thing. Not impossible, but a stretch.