What The H3ll? This is weird.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Dragons (http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/dragons/dragons.html), on Animal Planet. I though from the commercial it was going to be about creating dragons using genetics but seems to be about what their biology would be like if they had been real. Could be neat, but what's next? The biology of fairies, Chimaeras, pegasuses and griffins?:p

[Rolfe]

Absolutely! I was an an SF convention at the weekend, and there was a panel discussion about plausible biologies for alien species. I've heard the same sort of discussions regarding mythological species. All good clean fun.

Rolfe.

[Dragonrock]

Yes, it will be good, clean fun for most viewers. The problem is the group of creduloids who will watch it and start referencing it as though it was proof of something.

Also, they seem to make a big deal of the fact that every culture has a "dragon myth." The problem is that many dragon stories were just giant lizards or snakes and not all breathed fire. Most cultures have giant bird myths and sea going cultures have giant fish myths. It seems to me that people like to take scary things and make them terrifying by making up stories about really big ones.

That being said, I plan to watch it and I think it'll be good, clean fun.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by Dragonrock
...Also, they seem to make a big deal of the fact that every culture has a "dragon myth." The problem is that many dragon stories were just giant lizards or snakes and not all breathed fire.

Can someone verify for me whether the Chinese word for "dragon" is the same as for "lizard"?

[Bikewer]

I had a thread a few months back discussing the unlikelyhood of dragons with four legs AND wings, as commonly depicted in SciFi and Fantasy art.

Like other reptiles and flying mammals, a quadrupedic layout, with altered forelegs for wings, seems to be the only practical system for flight.

Unless they're magical...:D

[Zep]

IIRC, the "dragon" myth in China arose from the uncovering of "dragon bones" in what is now known to be prime dinosaur fossil country. If so, clearly the Chinese intelligentsia who first discovered these remains formed a very reasonable idea as to what they were looking at. I could imagine that some of the sauropod skeletons, when assembled, would indeed be very dragon-like in appearance.

[H3LL]

You called?

Oh! maybe not. :(

Originally posted by phildonnia
Can someone verify for me whether the Chinese word for "dragon" is the same as for "lizard"?

No it isn't.

Chinese for dragon is Lóng 龙

Lizard is Xiyì 蜥易

Maybe some confusion with dinosaur, which I believe is derived from the Greek words deinos, meaning "terrible" or "fearfully great," and sauros, meaning "lizard.

The Chinese for dinosaur, however, is Kong Lóng �龙 which could be interpreted as 'terrible dragon'.

I hope that helps.

PS - Can everyone see the Chinese characters?

[neutrino_cannon]

The limbs are actually explained nicely as being analogous to the muations that cause additional limbs in fruit flies.

They sure are slim for being partial aerostats.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot are the horns for?

And finally, does platinum really cause hydrogen to burn?

[SezMe]

Originally posted by H3LL
PS - Can everyone see the Chinese characters?
Not me. IE6 on Win2K

[athon]

I love playing with mythological biology. At high school, I did an assignment on genetic variation using dragons, and got an A for it. Luckily my teacher saw the sense in it.

I often use fictitious organisms as a means of getting across biological concepts in class. It means making less assumptions, as the organism is made up. You can focus on specific adaptational aspects of the organism in a focussed context.

And it's fun.

Athon

[H3LL]

Originally posted by SezMe
Not me. IE6 on Win2K

Even when changing encoding?

Menu: View --> Encoding --> Select.

I ask because my system is setup for several languages and I forget what is standard. Thanks.

[Soapy Sam]

Neutrino-cannon

Very finely divided (high surface area) platinum "black" acts as a catalyst and will ignite H2 and low molecular weight hydrocarbon gases in air at room temperature.

http://www.speclab.com/elements/platinum.htm

[Psi Baba]

Originally posted by H3LL
You called?

Oh! maybe not. :(



No it isn't.

Chinese for dragon is Lóng 龙

Lizard is Xiyì 蜥易

Maybe some confusion with dinosaur, which I believe is derived from the Greek words deinos, meaning "terrible" or "fearfully great," and sauros, meaning "lizard.

The Chinese for dinosaur, however, is Kong Lóng �龙 which could be interpreted as 'terrible dragon'.

I hope that helps.

PS - Can everyone see the Chinese characters?
I can see them. Very elegant-looking post.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by H3LL
...No it isn't.

Chinese for dragon is Lóng 龙

Lizard is Xiyì 蜥易
...
I hope that helps.



Thanks. I had assumed that the association of european dragons and oriental dragons might have been due to a selective translation of the chinese word. But I don't speak any chinese, so I thought I'd ask.

I was aware that the terms for dinosaurs in chinese use "long" in place of the greek "saur" meaning lizard.

Also, I have two english dictionaries, one of which lists the etymology "longan" as coming from the chinese "dragon eye", while the other calls it "lizard eyeball".