My son's science teacher says that winged, fire-breathing dragons truly exist. Could that be true?

Question

That was his 7th grade teacher. My son emphatically believes that such dragons exist. He firmly states that this is not a confusion with Komodo Dragons. Can you help us out on this mystery?

Answer 1

Did they give the taxonomic breakdown of this creature? As a scientist, I can't say that a thing doesn't exist just because I haven't seen it, but I can say that in all my years in college, no one ever mentioned it once. This is not to say that it is impossible. Given the things that science has stumbled upon, we should know better than to assume that anything is impossible. All I can say is, capture and classify one so they can rewrite the books.

Answer 2

There are those who believe in winged, fire breathing dragons, but I am very surprised that a science teacher would tell students that they exist.  There is no scientific evidence for their existence.  I believe that the dragon legends stem from people finding dinosaur skeletons, before we knew about dinosaurs.  The fire breathing part is the least believable.  How would they do that without cooking their own throat and mouth?.

Answer 3

Your son's 7th grade science teacher is either on drugs, or woefully misinformed.

No, there are no winged fire-breathing dragons - living or extinct.

There was a TV show on Animal Planet (also broadcast on Discovery and others), narrated by Patrick Stewart, called "Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real", in which they presented the biology and natural history of dragons as if they were real creatures.  

Apparently quite a few people missed the fact that the entire thing was completely fictional, and actually believed it was a documentary.  Perhaps your son's teacher was one of the gullible folks who saw this show on a "science" channel and assumed it was true.

Answer 4

I honestly think that there are  such creatures.

Simply because there may be no evidence about it doesn't make it untrue

And it was even mentioned in the bible

Come on now

People have good imaginations, but Back then too????

Answer 5

Have your son ask for evidence. I suggest that he do it in a private conversation rather than in front of the class; teachers don't like to be shown up as idiots. If your son misinterpreted what the teacher said, this will also keep your son from looking like an idiot in front of the class.

A winged dragon would be a hexapod, with three pairs of limbs. Where would the muscles for the wings be? For that matter, from what would you derive the bones that support the wing?

Answer 6

The only basis for this is the explanation as to why it was believed true in the middle ages.  Your son may have confused the teachers explanation with how that belief cam about.  There was never any fire breathing dragon except in mythology.

Answer 7

dragons are legends. they might/might have exist/existed, but no one can be sure. something like dragons could've exist.

i believe in them. dragons are like a belief, like God. some don't believe in them, some do. i'd say it's kind of like a religion.

so yyour son's science teacher believes in dragons. i'd ask him to explain it for me, about fire-breathing dragons.

Answer 8

Form a hypothesis, gather evidence, develop conclusion...shouldn't he be learning this.