Dragon Anatomy

[Shaprite]

I've seen people trying to make up anatomy for dragons. What do you think their anatomy are like?
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Beware. I bite!

[Jasriella]

Without even a fossil determining the anatomy of a fantastical creature is impossible. Again there are too many varieties of dragons to determine a set of anatomy as well.
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I am trapped between heaven and hell. My wings carry me upon the winds. Above lies heaven, below hell. Yet I must land in hell to soar in heaven. I am a Dragon!

[albvan]

When I hear the word dragon, I imagine a dog-sized creature that has anatomically a lot in comon with a carnivorous mammal, with some bird and reptile characteristics. That is, it has muscles (including the heart) and parts of the skeleton like a cat, however it's body is shorter and more muscular than a cat's, it has a highly developed brain and eyes like a primate, front limbs transformed into wings like a bat, fused lumbar vertebrae and more numerous cervical vertebrae like a bird, it has no fur or feathers, but a thickened skin with remnants of scale structures, (some) fat deposits beneath this skin for insulation, raptor-like hind legs, a long tail, a muzzle we typically asociate with a Western dragon, no frill or horns... But this is just an idea.

[MythRat]

I actually have a very detailed anatomical overview of the dragons I can remember (some of it is regarding reproductive anatomy so I can't post those parts here obviously) but being detailed means it's also quite long and I don't really know how people around feel about wall o' text posts, hehe. I think I've already pushed my luck once or twice, hehe.
Some of it's guesswork. Well, I say 'guesswork' but it's just that there are things I can remember the dragons doing but now how they did it so I've done a lot of studying and such and come up with as solid a method or explanation for it as I can based on the general laws of reality and common sense.
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"Humans are so interesting. Do you know, in a universe full of wonders, they've managed to invent boredom?" - Death

[Wyvernaa]

I always thought dragons had complex insides for them to be capable of blowing fire. I also think they might have airsacs like birds. It would have made rhe dragon lighter and more suitable for flying. But no one knows for sure.
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A silver and purple wyvern walks slowly on unexpected prey....

[Tarnos]

An interesting thing about dragon anatomy is them having six limbs, while all mammals, lizards, birds etc. have four. it is possible to have some atrophied and have therefore less then four, but more?
That would mean that dragons do not fit to Tetrapoda (a class containing all vertebrates except fishes and similar beings). And that leads us to dragons being so strange that out knowledge of them without actually seeing one is always very limited...
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If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
By Rudyard Kipling

[Raven]

Attempting to fit dragons into the evolutionary tree that appears on this Earth is... futile. Unless there is a rather significant chunk missing from the fossil record it is highly unlikely dragons every existed. Here.

Theorizing on their anatomy is, however, fascinating and I always enjoy hearing well-thought models.
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The Lichen grows slowly, atop of a rock.
It doesn't think, it scarcely feels,
But mightn't it be somehow greater than we?

[Tarnos]

That´s my point...if they never existed here and are not similar to any known species, we can hardly discuss their anatomy, because we have nothing to base it on, just a few assumptions and may-and needn´t-be wrong. For instance, dragons could be a silicon-based life form....they could slightly alter gravity by some internal organ (impending flow of gravitons?) to allow them fly...or they could be able to manipulate Brown´s movement to the same end and those are just things that just crossed my mind. The options are countless...
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If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
By Rudyard Kipling