I guess I should start out by explaining about why I decided to create a "care of alien dragons" section on my website. You see, I have an alien dragon companion and friend and I decided that dragons as a whole are misunderstood creatures, even in myth all over the world, so I wanted to set the record straight for them. Since the dragons can't "talk" the way we do that they deserve to be represented. I mean even we mutants have representation through such people as Professor Charles Xavier and others, so I will be the representative for the dragon populace here on Earth and those that are in space. The poor creatures have been repressed and stomped on long enough, especially when the majority of them are peace loving creatures that merely want to be left alone to live their lives, eat plants and small animals (Lockheed is an exception since he's an alien dragon) and lay their eggs in their lifetime. Instead they are hunted down and killed by angry mobs, sometimes for their scales (which are near impenetrable and resist heat...magic though sometimes can do some major damage to the poor creatures and mad mobs with sharp pointy things will eventually overpower even the largest dragons and kill them) or because they are scaring the villagers (who don't know any better). So, here I am going to try and explain dragons in a bit more detail for you by referencing Lockheed, my dragon pal.
So where to start? Perhaps by explaining basic things like what types of dragons are there on our planet. The history of the dragon can be traced back to the early dinosaurs, and one in particular by the name of "protodraco" (Johnsgard, Paul and Karin, 9). The dinosaurs were about five feet long, weighed about 150 pounds and had wings that were about three feet long. (Johnsgard, 5). Protodraco was eventually replaced by a being referred to as Mesodraco, which lived during the Mesozoic era. The forlegs of the creature developed more fully into winged structures and the weight of the creature started to shift to allow flight. During the Cenozoic Era, Mesodraco was eventually replaced by different species of Neodraco (or "New Dragon"). Three species of Neodraco exist today, the American Flightless Dragon (Neodraco americana), the European fire-breathing dragon (Neodraco pyrogena), and the Oriental or mist-breathing dragon (Neodraco pluvialis) (Johnsgard, 7).
Now this is where I start to break off from the research for my own theories because of what I know of Lockheed's physiology and how it differs from what we commonly think of as dragons. You see, Lockheed not only has wings, he also has forelegs, which is most uncommon in Earth's natural environment. Most flying creatures have wings that replace the forelegs (such as birds) and so they lose use of their forelegs. Lockheed not only has forelegs, but he also has wings, and so we must put him into a new category of dragon. Since Lockheed most closely resembles the European Fire-breathing dragon, I based much of my caring for Lockheed and how I dealt with him on that and then started to figure some other things out for myself.
We shall refer to Lockheed's species as Neodraco Pteropyrogena (Flying Fire Breathing Dragon). The Neodraco Pteropyrogena is primarily a carnivore, but also eats vegetation. The dragon has evolved over time so that it has one main stomach where it breaks down quick energy foods (number 5 on chart), such as simple sugars, although the heart (1 on chart) and lungs (2 on chart) seem to be in a basic enough formation, although they are much tougher and the heart beats faster than our own, as well as the esophogus and the main stomach (#5). Another compartment/stomach breaks down more complex proteins for stored energy for things such as long flights (#11). Yet another stomach on the other side is actually used to store vegetation (#4). This stomach is deluged with bacteria at all times by a special lining it has developed. This bacteria slowly breaks down the vegetation and ferments it, creating methane gas which is used for breathing fire. A small membrane connected to the stomach produces a chemical when threatened that leaks into the stomach and super-boosts the ability of the small body to produce
flame, so that not only does the fire last longer than a small burst, it is much hotter than a normal flame (#3). The flame is ignited by the dragon's back teeth, which are very rough and made of an unknown material. The dragon gnashes its teeth together when threatened, creating sparks, which ignite the methane gas. The inside of the dragon's mouth is made of hard almost unbreakable shell-like material and its tongue coated with flame retardant chemical membranes, and so the dragon is not hurt by the expulsion of the flame. When it wants to extinguish the flame it merely closes its mouth and smothers the fire. There is usually a lot of smokey discharge from its nostrils when it does this however, and when angry the dragon can use smoke to create a screen in which to escape an enemy or to use it to ambush its enemy.
The food that is broken down in the third stomach is used as well, so the dragon has a lot of built up energy between the three stomachs (#4). The stomachs are all attached to the large intestinal tract, which is actually similarly built to our own (#8) and then enters the small intestines, which is also similiarly built to ours in relation to the other major organs(#7). There is not much waste after the food is broken down, however, so the dragon does not produce much waste (as compared to say a bird which eats three times its own body weight but also has much waste). The colon (#9), liver (#10), and the gall bladder (#6) are somewhat different from human bodies in where they are located, but still serve much the same purposes (that I can formulate). The Neodraco Pteropyrogena, like most animals who are hunters by nature, tend to gorge themselves once a week. The food consumed is much greater than its body weight and the dragon, therefore, tends to sleep a lot to digest the food it has consumed.
The dragon must also have in its diet some very hard bone-like material to help to dull its teeth, so that they do not become too sharp. Used to hunting such creatures as the Brood, which have a skeleton of metal-like composite, the dragon needs to dull its claws and teeth so that they do not become too sharp and become nearly useless to the dragon. The dragon consists mainly on a high protein diet, mainly beef and other beef-like meats and some vegetables. The dragon also must eat some bark and other hard vegetation (watch your houseplants if you're ever found babysitting one!) to keep its methane producing stomach working properly.
The dragon must be allowed to sleep as much as it needs in order to digest its food correctly (not to mention they get cranky if you wake them up before they are ready to wake). Also, in order to keep its hunting instincts sharp, not to mention its flying abilities, you must keep the dragon in an area that has places to hide (as dragons do not like bright light...they are immune to the light from their own flame due to a special membrane that comes over their eye, but they do not produce that membrane unless they are breathing fire) and open spaces where it can fly. You must also humor the dragon when it wants to play to keep its instincts sharp (and trust me it'll help keep your sanity in tact if you play with them when they want to play. If you don't play on their schedule prepare for a lot of four o'clock in the morning wake up calls). Hide and seek and tag seem to be the most popular play forms.
Make the dragon lift things that are approximately twice their body mass once in a while to keep them strong. If you do not their forearm muscles will become lax and will do them no good if they find themselves needing to hunt an animal that they have to claw through the skin to get to the meat (or in the case of a lot of aliens a very thick shell that laser blasts bounce off of).
We do not know how intelligent the dragons are, but we suspect that the brain is at least as big as ours relatively and that the dragons are very intelligent. The dragons can not speak the same way we do, due to the shape of the mouth and the lack of expandable cheeks, but they can make noise by vibrating a membrane in their throat and can form some words which are understandable but somewhat odd sounding. The small Neodraco Pteropyrogena has the ability to not only glide but take off in a small space due to the shape of its scales on the back of its wings. The scales lift slightly, flexing to form sails along the back of the wings, and so when the wings are swung downward in a flapping motion the scales act as very strong little pockets of air thus lift the dragon up high enough to catch drafts. The scales then slick close to the body when the dragon sails forward on breezes and allows the dragon to drift down to land on small spaces. This ability comes in very handy when the dragon is trying to sneak up on prey.
The dragon has scales that are purplish-grey in color and the scales will take on the slight shade of whatever color the dragon is around, an advantage when trying to hide its presence from prey.
We do not know how large the dragons become, yet, and nor do we know how long they will live, but if we take into account that the one Neodraco Pteropyrogena is still a baby dragon (we think) and take into account how long such lizards as iguana's live, the dragons could live for a very very long time.
As a note, all I really do know is that Lockheed is a joy to have as a friend, is very intelligent, is a true friend, and he's very very cute. The rest of this is just guesswork and some research on my part.
