How real are dragons?

It’s important to understand what actual biological mechanisms and chemical reactions might be behind something like this. The most important thing to consider is that we need three ingredients to ignite and sustain a flame: a fuel, an oxidizer (usually oxygen from the air), and a heat source to initiate and sustain combustion.

• Let’s start with fuel.

Can be a candidate methane. Animals produce it during digestion. Animals that produce enough methane would need to have a diet and digestive system similar to a cow to produce enough gas to fuel a city.

But it happens the problem of adequate methane storageA typical methane cylinder can withstand 150 atmospheres of pressure, while even a swollen intestine can only withstand a little more than one atmosphere. It is biologically impossible for marine organisms to store gas at high pressure.

A better option would be liquid and ethanol could be an option. For example, an animal might have specialized organs for the production and storage of ethanol. But the efficiency of such production and storage would obviously depend greatly on the size of the animal. A dragon-sized creature could certainly store enough ethanol to fire several powerful volleys, but something the size of a dog was unlikely to do so.

Storage can also be an issue. Ethanol rapidly penetrates biological membranesthat is, to keep it in high concentration and ready to deploy on the signal “Drakaris” requires new, specialized devices. But if evolution could create animals that do not die from the strongest poisons and do not eat themselves after contact with stomach acid, then theoretically it could also invent organs that are not adapted to the harmful effects of ethanol.

There may be another option something like oilIf you’ve ever accidentally set your pan on fire, you know what I’m talking about. There’s even a biological basis for this in fulmar gulls. They regurgitate energy-rich stomach oil to feed their chicks. The oil also acts as a deterrent. When threatened, fulmars spray a sticky, foul-smelling oil at predators. Fortunately, gulls haven’t yet learned to set their vomit on fire.

Fulmars / Unsplash photo

• We feed the flame.

Now that we have a fuel source, let’s turn our attention to the oxidizer. As with most fires, it will most likely be oxygen. However, creating a pressurized jet of burning liquid or gas hot enough to melt the Iron Throne will require more oxygen than the surrounding air. It will also need to be thoroughly mixed with the fuel. The better access to oxygen, the hotter the flame.

The dragon can use some of the same chemicals as the bombardier beetle. This beetle has created reservoirs adapted to store hydrogen peroxide. When threatened, the beetle expels the hydrogen peroxide into a reservoir containing enzymes that will quickly break it down into water and oxygen.

It’s an exothermic reaction that transfers energy to the environment, in which case it raises the temperature of the mixture to near boiling point. The reaction is so aggressive that it’s sometimes used to propel rockets. The rapid production of oxygen and the resulting pressure from boiling water push the toxic mixture out through the opening in the insect’s abdomen toward the prey or threat.

If this reaction were used by a dragon, it would have several features: it would create the high pressure needed to propel the oily fuel jet, the exothermic reaction would heat the oils making them more liable to burn, and most importantly, it would produce oxygen to start the combustion reaction.

All a dragon needs is the biological equivalent of a gasoline engine carburetor, which mixes oil with oxygen to create an explosive mixture. As a bonus, the explosive mixture will likely produce a fine, aerosol-like mist of oil droplets that will ignite better.

Finally, we need a spark to ignite the mixture. This will require the development of an electric organ similar to that found in many fish, especially electric eels.

They can produce short pulses to create sparks across a short air gap. If these sparks are expelled through channels at the back of the dragon’s mouth, they can ignite a high-pressure jet of liquid and oxygen.

Are dragons real?

While it seems theoretically possible that such an animal exists, it is very unlikely that they exist or have ever existed. This also creates many other problems, such as the need for a mouth and teeth to resist fire or a function such as fire breathing.