Question about Dragons?

[cornholioprime]

Warm blooded.

Dragon Blood is not only poisonous but steaming (sometimes scalding) hot.

[cornholioprime]

Warm blooded.

Dragon Blood is not only poisonous but steaming (sometimes scalding) hot.

Isn't that just the fire dragon from RUE?

I don't have RUE (yet).

I was quoting readings from other texts including Palladium Books Presents Gods and Dragons (which includes conversion notes for Rifts™)....

[Talavar]

Definitely warm blooded.

[Tinker Dragoon]

Just wondering if you guys know if Dragons are considered reptiles and cold blooded?

Nope, they're warm-blooded mammals.

[verdilak]

Warm blooded and when wounded the blood is scalding hot for the few moments ( may be longer, I dont have the books in front of me ATM).

[Tinker Dragoon]

They are specifically stated to be mammals in the books. Apparently, they're monotremes, like the platypus and echidna.

[Lukterran]

I'm not so sure a dragon would be a considered a mammal?

Isn't one of the main characteristics of being a mammal having body hair? Unless your speaking about the Wooly Dragon... I don't see much body hair on a dragon.

Also another main criteria is that the females have mammary glands(produce milk). So where are the dragon breasts? So does drinking dragon milk give you supernatural strength?

Dragons lay eggs & most mammals don't lay eggs.

(The platypus and echidna which are the only two mammals that lay eggs.) I personally think those two species are incorrectly classified. (Enchidna's don't have teeth, which is needed to be classified as a mammal.)

[Lukterran]

Yep...but all and all...a dragon is a supernatural creature like many other weird and stranger monsters in Palladium Fantasy and really don't qualify for any of the normal animal classifications.

I don't think science has even considered breathing fire, teleportation, or the number of other worldly abilities and powers for animal classifications.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I'm not so sure a dragon would be a considered a mammal?

Isn't one of the main characteristics of being a mammal having body hair? Unless your speaking about the Wooly Dragon... I don't see much body hair on a dragon.

Also another main criteria is that the females have mammary glands(produce milk). So where are the dragon breasts? So does drinking dragon milk give you supernatural strength?

Dragons lay eggs & most mammals don't lay eggs.

(The platypus and echidna which are the only two mammals that lay eggs.) I personally think those two species are incorrectly classified. (Enchidna's don't have teeth, which is needed to be classified as a mammal.)

regardless of logic, The book clearly states they are mamals.

Therefore, Mammals are something different in Rifts


Maybe humans are called reptiles...

[drewkitty ~..~]

I would say that Dragons are nether mamale nor reptiles, they are Creatures of Magic, so don't folllow what bounderies mundains fall into.


But if the book says they are mammals then they are warm blooded.

[Captain Shiva]

Dragons would in my opinion vary according to species in their body temperature. A fire dragon would have very hot blood, while an ice dragon's blood definitely be cold.(In a story in the Rifter, it mentions a temperature close to that of liquid nitrogen.) I'd make a great horned dragon just plain old ectothermic,but suffer no ill effects from cold. And as far as I'm concerned, they lay eggs and are similar to reptiles.

[Ice Dragon]

First, dragon are creatures of magic, second a dragon is according to the books a mammal and third, cold blooded depends on the species like an Ice Dragon.

[DrBeau]

"Cold-blooded" is kind of a misnomer. If the the OP meant cold-blooded as "does the dragon need to rely on external sources for it's internal body temperature", then I dragons are warm blooded. If the OP meant "is a dragon's blood physically cold", then I would say the answer varies (Ice dragon is cold, fire dragon is hot, etc.).

Warm and cold blooded don't really refer to the temperate of the blood, but to the body's ability to regulate it's own temperature. Mammals regulate their own temperature, reptiles do not. Dragon = mammal...dragon = warm-blooded.

Also, it's don't let the scales fool you into thinking it can't be a mammal.
Example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin

This concludes our biology lesson for the day.

Also, they're Creatures of Magic...who cares how their bodies function?

[Talavar]

And lots of things lay eggs and maintain a consistent body temperature - birds. As to platypus and echidnas being misclassfied, they aren't. They're mammals for a variety of reasons that separate them from reptiles, like fur and milk production for instance.

[Greyaxe]

Just wondering if you guys know if Dragons are considered reptiles and cold blooded?

Nope, they're warm-blooded mammals.

They are not mammals they do not feed their young milk.

They are warm blooded reptiles.

[cornholioprime]

Just wondering if you guys know if Dragons are considered reptiles and cold blooded?

Nope, they're warm-blooded mammals.

They are not mammals they do not feed their young milk.

They are warm blooded reptiles.

or birds

None of the above...sort of.

They don't nurse their young (nor do they have mammaries in the first place), so they're not mammals.

They are not creatures specifically adapted for flight, nor do they have feathers, ultra-light endoskeletons nor even wings of sufficient size to keep aloft their massive bodies (in fact, canon states them as being at home even in a vacuum, which suggests magically propelled flight even thought they still do need functioning wings to do so), so they're not birds.

And nothing besides their general shape and scales even suggests that they're repitles; certainly they're not cold-blooded as we understand the term in the real world, nor are their brains hardwired or primitive (reptiles don't have things like pleasure centers or even the so-called Rat Brain).

In short, Dragons are cool creatures that serve only the purposes of Kevin introducing his version of the most "beloved/famous" monster in all of fantasy gaming....and like most things in Gaming in general and Palladium Books in particular, they fall short under real-world scientific scrutiny.

[cornholioprime]

If you value your life and/or sanity you'll never ever refer to a Dragon as reptile, mammal, bird or whatever.
Usually "master", "oh great shiny glory" or "Most exquisite fiery death from above." will keep you alive.

NOW you're talking.

[Qev]

I'm not so sure a dragon would be a considered a mammal?

Isn't one of the main characteristics of being a mammal having body hair? Unless your speaking about the Wooly Dragon... I don't see much body hair on a dragon.

Also another main criteria is that the females have mammary glands(produce milk). So where are the dragon breasts? So does drinking dragon milk give you supernatural strength?

Dragons lay eggs & most mammals don't lay eggs.

(The platypus and echidna which are the only two mammals that lay eggs.) I personally think those two species are incorrectly classified. (Enchidna's don't have teeth, which is needed to be classified as a mammal.)

Dragons fail the 'mammal' test at an even more fundamental level, since they're not even tetrapods. Three limb girdles does not a mammal make; of course, this also completely excludes them from being amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, and avians as well.

Now, canon (as of Palladium Fantasy at least) says they're mammals, which I assume to be a case of simplification on the part of the writers. It's easier to label them 'mammals' than 'warm-blooded, mammal-like supernatural creatures that resemble reptiles' or somesuch. Warm-bloodedness isn't a unique trait to mammals, anyway: the birds are warm blooded, as were (possibly) the dinosaurs, and some modern-day reptiles are part-time warm blooded (weird as that is).