![]() Life cycle of a Chinese Long: Egg (1), water snake (2), Kiao (3), Long (4), Kioh-Lung (5), Ying-Lung (6) Here the growth of a dragon takes an unrealistically long time as opposed to British myths, which is related to the divinity of the dragon. Ī very detailed desciption of the growth of young dragons is found in Chinese mythology. Hogarth describes the young of some species of dragon to suckle milk, like mammals. The heads of the young acted as additional heads for the mother dragon, which might have been the basis for the many-headed dragon. Sviatoslav Logonov believed that Slavic dragons carry their young on their backs. As with many English myths, he loves cow's milk, on which he was mainly fed as a young dragon. This dragon reached adulthood in the time span of one month, and though he brings no harm to Maud, scares others into believing he will attack them in spite of his upbringing. This points to the wyvern being an intelligent creature that should spend its time with its parents by nature, and that this particular wyvern was orphaned due to unforseen circumstances. Here it is described as a charming creature with wings, playful in nature and regarded by the male protagonist Maud as his pet. The wyvern is described differently in the story of the dragon of Mordiford. It is not known if the Guivre are viviparous or ovoviviparous. It follows that these young dragons are left to fend for themselves thereafter. Young vipers eat their way out of the womb.Īn interesting case is the medieval description of the Guivre (Viper), in which not only do the females bite of the head of the males during courtship, but the young eat their way out of the womb of their mother, thus killing her. ![]() It was cared for by a girl in a gold casket, where it grew in the presence of gold with substantial speed. The dragon which was killed by Ragnar loðbrók also begins its life in a very similar way. He threw it in a well, where it grew over the years into a giant worm which terrorised the townsfolk. One of these is the legend of the Lambton Worm, in which the protagonist caught an animal similar to a lamprey or olm. Some English legends tell of young dragons that were found by humans. The baby Lambton Worm probably resembled the olm, Proteus anguinus Hogarth states that maggots from the carcasses evolve into flies, which later develop into dragons. Knowing that maggots hatch from eggs that are laid in cadavers, this could be evidence for similar reproductive behavior of certain types of dragons. Scientists held a rather interesting view on this topic, in which dragons emerge from the corpses of slain people on the battlefield, much like maggots from cadavers. These acts however were counterproductive to them as humans hunted them with increasing frequency. Robert May believed that the overpopulation of these large predators was avoided with such wasteful behavior. īased on sources from the 17th and 18th centuries, Hogarth also states that male dragons released their sperm into fountains and bodies of water during the mating season. Hogarth, this sexual dimorphism suggests that the crest is used in mating rituals. Medieval bestiaries state that only male Indian mountain dragons have a crest on their heads. ![]() Some exceptions to this rule are listed below. ![]() There are few resources on the topic of dragon reproduction, because dragons are often depicted in Western myths as monsters sent by the gods or the devil. Most of these cases pertain more often to Asian mythology as opposed to its Western counterparts. Yet there are also stories of dragons which grow to a significantly large size in short time. Some sources also state that the Long dragons of Asian origin lay their eggs in bodies of water.ĭragons are often said to mature very slowly, which match their presumably long lifespans. Such myths are commonly associated with wyverns. ![]() There are however stories that refute this theory, in which young dragons mature in water, as do the larvae of amphibians. Due to their elemental affinity to fire, the eggs are also depicted to require high temperatures which are maintained by the mother dragon's fire. Most times the eggs require a long incubation period in which they are incubated and protected by their mother as is the case with many archosaurs. As dragons appear to be related to dinosaurian or reptilian animals, ergo to sauropsids, it is believed that they lay eggs. ![]()
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