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If dragons were real, how would they fly and breathe fire?

If dragons were real, how would they fly and breathe fire?

Update: 2025-01-24

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Dragons are fantastical fairytale creatures that fly and breathe fire. They aren’t real, but there are animals that can do the things dragons do! So … if dragons did exist, how would they fly and breathe fire? We asked science professor Dr. Mark Lorch to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s DRAGON you down? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll fire off an answer!

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Transcript

00:00:00

- From the brains behind brains on, this is the moment of um.

00:00:06

(upbeat music)

00:00:08

Moment of um comes to you from APM Studios.

00:00:13

I'm Joy Dolo.

00:00:15

So I host a history podcast for kids called Forever ago because I love learning about how people lived in the past.

00:00:25

The other night I was thinking about how people entertained themselves centuries ago.

00:00:29

For TV or radio or audio books, people told each other stories.

00:00:34

Stories about far away lands, adventures, romances, and fantastical beasts, like dragons.

00:00:42

Obviously dragons are the coolest mythical beast because they're magic and they can fly and breathe fire.

00:00:49

Ugh, I wish I could see a dragon in real life.

00:00:52

- From a distance with a fire extinguisher, you know what I mean?

00:00:55

I mean, I know dragons aren't real, but if they did exist, would they be able to fly and breathe fire like the dragons and stories?

00:01:04

Are there real life animals who can do stuff like that?

00:01:07

Sophia was wondering this too.

00:01:09

- My name is Sophia, I'm from like St.

00:01:12

Tink and Tucky and if dragons were real, how would they fly around and breathe fire?

00:01:18

(upbeat music)

00:01:20

- I'm Professor Mark Loach.

00:01:21

I work at the University of Hull in the UK.

00:01:26

So how do dragons fly and how do they breathe fire?

00:01:30

Well, that's a fabulous question and you could come up with all sorts of magical answers, but I'm gonna try and focus on some biologically plausible answers.

00:01:43

So I'm gonna look at what other animals do and see whether we can use some of the things that they do and apply them to dragons.

00:01:52

Well, firstly, the flying thing, I suppose the nearest thing to a dragon would be the terraces back, you know, 17 million years ago that flew around,

00:02:03

glided around the earth at the same time as the dinosaurs lived.

00:02:06

So some of these were absolutely huge.

00:02:09

So the largest terraces was about the size of a giraffe.

00:02:14

They were quite skinny, you know, they weren't as big as the bulkiers of dragon, but, you know, given that their wingspan would have been about the same as seven or eight adults or a standing with their arms stretched out together,

00:02:28

I'd say that counts as a flying dragon.

00:02:32

The trickier thing then is to explain how they might breathe fire.

00:02:37

So if we're gonna think about fire, what do we need for fire?

00:02:40

Well, we need three things, fuel, oxygen and a ignition or something to start it.

00:02:46

So let's start with a fuel.

00:02:47

Well, things like methane.

00:02:48

So cows produce a lot of methane, yeah.

00:02:51

They burp it and it comes on the other end as well.

00:02:53

And that's very flammable.

00:02:56

Other things that biological systems produce that's flammable is alcohol.

00:03:00

Yeah, so you produce that and actually it's produced potentially by some fish and so on as well.

00:03:07

The problem there, though, is that alcohol just passes through all our biological tissue, really, really quickly.

00:03:15

I reckon most likely source, though, is at something oily.

00:03:20

You know, they eat a lot of animals, animals have fats and oils in them.

00:03:24

So I think it could store some of these fats and oils.

00:03:27

And it's a bit like there's a type of bird, a former girl that actually dominates up oily yuck to deter predators and so on.

00:03:37

And maybe dragons produce something similar.

00:03:40

What if we add a bit of extra oxygen into this mix?

00:03:44

That would make something burn really, really well.

00:03:46

The next thing we need is something to light it with.

00:03:49

Well, we could do that all sorts of ways.

00:03:50

Maybe they eat stones that create sparks.

00:03:53

Well, possibly they have something like an electric eel that generates a spark that might ignite all of that oil and allow them to vomit, flaming oil all over their prey.

00:04:04

So there you go.

00:04:05

That's my answer to how the dragons breathe fire.

00:04:10

They set fire to oily vomit.

00:04:12

(upbeat music)

00:04:16

Well, that's the coolest, grossest thing I've ever heard.

00:04:23

A dragon could probably fly if its wings were big enough like the wings on the extinct giraffe-sized teradactyl.

00:04:29

It would probably have to have light hollow bones like birds do.

00:04:34

Otherwise it'd be too heavy to get off the ground.

00:04:36

The fire breathing part is trickier.

00:04:38

A dragon would have to be able to make some kind of flammable fuel in its body.

00:04:43

It would have to be able to mix that fuel with oxygen and then make some kind of spark to get the fire going.

00:04:49

There isn't a real life animal that breathes fire that way, but there are different animals on earth that kind of do those things.

00:04:56

Like birds that spew disgusting oily barf at predators or bugs that spray boiling hot chemicals from their butts.

00:05:04

Now that would be an awesome imaginary creature.

00:05:08

A ginormous beetle spewing fire from its butt.

00:05:11

Where's that fairy tale adventure?

00:05:13

If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Umbrella you listen to podcasts.

00:05:20

And if you want to learn more about our magical world, check out the Brains on Podcasts where we have a whole episode all about auroras, colorful dancing lights in the sky.

00:05:30

Wanna see our shows come to life?

00:05:32

Head to YouTube where we've got awesome animated Brains on episodes.

00:05:36

Search Brains on Universe on YouTube and subscribe.

00:05:40

If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it.

00:05:43

Drop us a line by going to brainson.org/contact.

00:05:47

Moment of Umbrella is produced by Molly Bloom, Rachel Breeze, Rosie Dupont, Anna Goldfield, Ruby Guthrie, Mark Sanchez, Anna Wagle, Nico Gonzales Whistler, and Otto Moldoslassi.

00:05:57

We had editing help from Sheila Farzon and Sandin Totten and engineering help from Alex Simpson.

00:06:03

Our theme song is by Mark Sanchez.

00:06:06

Our executive producer is Beth Pearlman.

00:06:08

The executive's in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Cavotti and Joanne Griffith, special thanks this week to Kylie Kennedy and Mark Lorch.

00:06:16

See you next time and the next day and every weekday.

00:06:20

Until then...

00:06:22

(upbeat music)

00:06:24

Oh no, the giant beetle butt monster is coming.

00:06:34

Save us with a joy.

00:06:36

Fear not, good sir.

00:06:38

I shall vanquish it.

00:06:40

Taste my apricot dabbler, your beetle butt themed.

00:06:43

[BLANK_AUDIO]

00:06:53

If dragons were real, how would they fly and breathe fire?

If dragons were real, how would they fly and breathe fire?

American Public Media

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