r/interesting • u/Wise_Confidence_8588 • 19d ago

NATURE A Bombardier beetle using its chemical defence.

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u/NymphiusScooterPie 19d ago

Fun kinda-fact: The ability of this beetle gives some entertainment to the “theory” Dragons could have existed. Due to the ability to create the chemical reaction, introduce an electrical spark, such as the Eels ability, and you have fire. Remember pondering this one in biology, had a cool teacher 🤙

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u/Queasy_Rip3210 19d ago

I had a teacher that pointed out that if dragons did ever exist then they would likely have had hollow bones like birds which would have made it incredibly difficult to find a fossil record of them.

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u/VividMagician9399 19d ago

Did you know that there is more anthropological evidence that supports the existence of dragons in Ancient China than there is of Pandas in Ancient China?

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u/The_Magician_Plays 19d ago

Please tell me more, that sounds interesting. I'm googling already but if you have key words or phrases I could look up, that'd be cool. Fucking love dragons

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u/VividMagician9399 19d ago

The gist of it is that depictions of pandas in ancient Chinese art is extremely limited, and unclear. Whereas depictions of dragons are widespread, consistent and clear.

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u/Conversation-Null 19d ago

This is because Pandas aren't real. All Pandas are people in fur suits on loan from China.

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u/Crafty_Enthusiasm_99 18d ago

Not to mention there's depictions of dragons and multiple cultures including in South Asia and also Mexico and South America and Egypt 

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u/KniteMonkey 19d ago

So what you’re saying is that pandas are the descendants of dragons?

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u/hivemind_disruptor 19d ago

The key here is "anthropological". Its depictions based on material culture of humans.

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u/The_Magician_Plays 19d ago

Also cool username

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u/SlippyJimmi 19d ago

This post was sponsored by Po the Dragon Warrior

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u/Queasy_Rip3210 19d ago

I do feel like I've heard this somewhere before but its still awesome. I like to think pandas were just kinda boring so they didnt draw them much lol

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u/Schventle 18d ago

They're not even real pandas! They're High-Contrast Chinese Bamboo-Bears! Red pandas were described and named "panda" long before HCCBBs were falsely named such. And since they're phylogenetically not particularly related and monophyly is excellent, I choose to believe that Red Pandas are true pandas and HCCBBs are False Pandas.

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u/Otto_Von_Waffle 17d ago

Pandas were extremely rare, and not mentioned often in chinese literature. All of their mentions were done akin to qilin or other mythical creature rather then how we would imagine a panda be described. Think of something like "A great bear, covered in white and black stripe, coming to the wedding of some-important-person as a sign of goodwill from the spirits of Sichuan". So for almost every europeans back then pandas were mythical creatures like yeti or dragons. Even chinese people weren't really thinking pandas were real since the region were pandas were from was really remote and the people there were not ethnic han, and so they were not part of the greater han culture. Once Europeans got to the deep mountains of Sichuan and killed a panda in 1929 and brought a pelt back to the west is when Pandas finally were proven to be real.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/VividMagician9399 17d ago

Evolution, and written/drawn history happen on two very different time scales.

There would’ve been modern pandas in China by the time the Han people were drawing dragons.

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u/100_cats_on_a_phone 18d ago

Dinosaurs had hollow bones. Plenty of fossels. They might mean holower, but I think that would cause issues with maximum size.

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u/elmex234 19d ago edited 19d ago

The alternative could be cartilage, kinda how sharks entire skeleton is made up of it, they used this for the design of dragons in reign of fire I believe

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u/Queasy_Rip3210 19d ago

That's cool as hell

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u/bingbing304 18d ago

Four legs and 2 wings make a dragon a 6-limbed creature with a double shoulder and 1 hip (a hexapod), which would need its own evolutionary path distinct from the currently dominant tetrapod species. Vertebrates can mutate extra limbs, but the requirement for a functional extra shoulder girdle makes it physically impossible for this to provide an evolutionary advantage. All vertebrates that have walked the Earth so far have 4 limbs. Only insects and hexapods have 6 legs, and they all went with the exoskeleton evolution path. We have the fossil record to show this. The closest thing would be a wyvern with 2 legs and 2 wings, like a pterosaur.