Table of Contents
Taylor McMahon treats dragon stories from many cultures as a question about real animals. Herodotus tells of Arabian serpents with batlike wings, heaps of bones, and incense trees so well guarded that gatherers drove the animals off with smoke, a report placed near 450 BC. Marco Polo’s huge snakes, located here in Indonesia or Malaysia, hide by day and hunt at night, large enough to take a person. Alexander’s men reportedly saw them in India. In 1552 Conrad Gessner, called a founder of zoology, describes a cave serpent that kills with its tail, and McMahon adds that Gessner claimed a young one. The shared picture is a nocturnal reptile, sometimes said to fly. Crocodiles, nearly unchanged for about 200 million years and sometimes twenty to forty feet long, are his living comparison. Few fossils are no disproof. Until 1877 there was no word for dinosaur, and dragon simply meant a giant reptile that might have met humans. A fish caught alive in 1938, the coelacanth, and gorillas unclassified until 1847, show myth turning into zoology. He trusts the old travelers.
Key points
- Herodotus is quoted on winged Arabian serpents that guarded incense trees and could be driven off with smoke.
- Marco Polo’s giant snakes and Alexander’s Indian dragons are treated as traveler reports rather than map decorations.
- Gessner is presented as a zoologist who described a cave serpent that strikes with its tail and claimed to have kept a young one.
- Crocodiles, plus the lack of a dinosaur vocabulary before 1877, are his bridge from the old word to a real animal.
- The coelacanth and the late classification of gorillas are analogies for beings once filed as myth.
- His conclusion is that the explorers told the truth and that large reptiles still amount to dragons among us.
Short quotes
the trees which bear the frankincense are guarded by small winged serpents
Taylor McMahon, Dragons and large reptiles
He reads Herodotus as reporting a practical Arabian problem, incense trees watched by winged serpents. Watch at 2:10
the dragon is the largest serpent its strength lies not in its teeth but in its tail
Taylor McMahon, Dragons and large reptiles
The sixteenth century zoologist is quoted on a giant serpent whose power is in the tail, not the bite. Watch at 5:12
dragons and dinosaurs and large reptiles were the same thing
Taylor McMahon, Dragons and large reptiles
His definition is that the old name, the later dinosaur label, and any huge reptile were one category. Watch at 8:34
I believe that ancient explorers were honest about their encounters with large reptiles
Taylor McMahon, Dragons and large reptiles
He closes the historical survey by saying he trusts those travel reports of giant reptiles. Watch at 10:38
Video by Taylor McMahon. Watch on YouTube.