Where did the legends about dragons come from? The real existence of dragons has already been proven by scientists

If the existence of all sorts of centaurs and unicorns modern science is categorically rejected, then there have been fierce debates around such a mythical beast as the dragon for many years.
Tales of dragons and snakes exist on all continents. The ancient Roman writer Pliny described a forty-meter dragon killed by Regulus during the Punic War, whose skin and fangs were put on public display in Rome for a long time. The Celts and Vikings spoke about dragons, the Russians composed epics about the battles of heroes with the Serpent Gorynych. The Indian Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl is very similar to Slavic god Veles, depicted as huge snake and “combining hairiness and scales in his appearance.” In China, legends about dragons go back to ancient times. Moreover, unlike, say, Europe, where a devilish essence was attributed to dragons, in China they still symbolize valor and nobility.
So, did these incredible animals ever live? And if not, what contributed to the emergence of so many legends and myths? Florida State University zoologist Walter Auffenberg, for example, suggests that the first myth about the dragon arose 100 thousand years ago, at a time when primitive man observed snakes crawling out of the ground in the spring - “reborn” after winter. Auffenberg writes that the first evidence that can be accurately defined as “dragon” refers to the Sumerian culture, which arose 5 thousand years ago in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates. Further, according to Auffenberg, around 1500 BC. The warrior-horses of Central Asia brought fragments of the Sumerian myth to the west - to Europe and to the east - to China. Aryan conquerors may have brought the dragon legend with them to India, and then traders may have carried it to Indonesia and Australia, where the myth of the Flying Serpent exists.
Domestic scientists A. Chemokhonenko and Y. Chesnov believe that the dragon once acted as a totem animal. The image of the dragon “emerged in those tribal mysteries where they talked about the unity of people among themselves and with the outside world,” but later “ceased to play its socially unifying and educational role.” However, people could not part with him for a long time, filling him with new features, making him a character in myths and fairy tales.
But such explanations for the appearance of legends about dragons do not satisfy everyone. For example, creationists (opponents of Darwin's theory) claim that dragons really existed. And there were also ancient lizards, which we call dinosaurs. According to Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, St. George actually fought a dinosaur, not a serpent. They say that dragons and legends about them are the memory of our distant ancestors about meetings with the extinct owners of the Earth. Evolutionists rightly object that in those distant times, when the last dinosaur died on our planet, there were no traces of people yet.
Some scientists believe that some of the prehistoric monsters on Earth have survived to this day in unexplored corners of the planet. And since just a few centuries ago these creatures were much more common than now, they could well have been known as dragons among our ancestors. In the 30s of the 20th century, scientific journals collected testimonies from sixty eyewitnesses who claimed that they had seen the underground worm Stollenwurm with their own eyes. All descriptions appearance Stollenwurma coincided: the length of the elongated body is about 90 centimeters, it sharply tapers towards the tail; there is no neck at all, the head is flattened, and there are two huge spherical eyes on it. The beast is covered with scales and emits a snake-like thorn. They said that the Stollenwurm is aggressive, jumping and “capable of killing a person with just its breath.” But, alas, it was not possible to catch or photograph the underground worm. And in the 60s of the last century, reports appeared in the world press about another dragon of our time - Sirrush. Reports of its appearance came from various parts of the globe: from Scotland and Ireland, Norway and Sweden, Africa and other places. The beginning of this story can be considered in 1887, when the German professor Robert Koldewey, during excavations of Ancient Babylon, found a fragment of an old brick, on one side of which a fragment of an amazing animal was depicted. More than 10 years later, during the second expedition, Kolvedey discovered the gates of Queen Ishtar, which were built from the same bricks. The gate was decorated with repeating images of two animals. One of them resembled an aurochs, and the other looked like a dragon. It is called the Babylonian dragon, in some sources it is referred to as Sirrush. The dragon was depicted as a creature with a narrow long body covered with scales, a long neck ending in a snake head with a straight horn, and a thin scaly tail. Koldewey, trying to find similarities between Sirrush and any of famous lizards, concluded that the animal, if it existed, should have been classified as an bird-footed dinosaur.
There is also an opinion that dragons were a separate species that became extinct due to natural reasons, since they were extremely rare at all times. A small climate change that drove dragons out of their usual habitats, or a reduction in food ration, was enough for the number of individuals to sharply decrease and population restoration was impossible.
There are also absolutely fantastic versions. For example, that dragons may be creatures from a parallel world, or that these animals were brought to us at one time by aliens from outer space.
Information from the site: http://dragons-nest.ru/def/dragon-mith_or_real.php

ZMEY GORYNYCH: MYTHS AND REALITY

(Material provided by Vladimir Shigin)

Today our press is full of sensational articles about all kinds of unusual phenomena and miracles, which are often, alas, based only on the idle speculation of their authors. Sometimes, in search of sensations, they do not disdain anything, including even deliberate deception of the gullible reader and gross manipulation of real facts. But what’s easier, you just have to look around carefully, look into old books that seem to be well known to everyone, and a real wave of such incredible facts, the abundance of which will make the most daring science fiction writer reel! To do this, you just need to be attentive and diligent, only in this case the yellowed volumes of ancient tomes will reveal their revelations to you!
Who among us has not heard from our school years about the famous PSRL ( Complete collection Russian chronicles). There are no words, numerous volumes of difficult-to-read texts are the lot of a narrow circle of professional specialists. However, among dozens and dozens of ancient manuscripts, reprinted many times, there are also those that are well adapted to the language of the modern reader. Studied and re-studied up and down by many generations of domestic and foreign historians, they do not seem to contain anything new, much less unusual, but it only seems so at first glance. You just have to break away from today's bustle and breathe in the aroma of bygone eras, touch the past, as it will certainly reward you with the most incredible discoveries!
How much debate there is today about such a famous character in many Russian fairy tales and epics - the Serpent Gorynych! How historians and publicists fail to explain the essence of this very unusual creature. Some see in it the product of the forces of a formidable element, in particular a tornado, others even see in it a giant Mongol-Chinese flamethrower. There are, however, voices that perhaps Serpent Gorynych had a very real prototype as some kind of relict dinosaur, but at the same time everyone immediately stipulates that there is no factual confirmation of this hypothesis.
Completeness! There is confirmation of the version about the real existence of the Serpent, you just have to carefully re-read the original texts of the same well-known epics, you just have to slowly leaf through the ancient chronicles.
Let's start with the fact that in addition to numerous fairy-tale and epic images of the Serpent, ancient Russian mythology brought to us an amazing and very specific image of a certain sacred Lizard - the forefather who supposedly created everything living on Earth. It was from the egg hatched by this first lizard that our world was born. The origins of this myth go back to the beginnings of ancient Aryan culture and are, apparently, one of the most ancient. And now let’s ask a very logical question: why there was such a long-standing and incredibly persistent worship of some fictional creature, while all other worship and totems (a deified animal, considered the ancestor of the clan) among the ancient Rus and Slavs were always associated with very real and specific representatives animal world: leopards and bears, bulls and swans?
For some reason, the cult of the lizard beasts was especially strong in the northwestern regions of Rus', in the Novgorod and Pskov lands. Maybe that’s why this cult existed because lizard beasts once lived there? Thus, the myth of a certain miracle two-headed lizard, which swallowed the setting sun with one head and vomited it into the sky with the other, is widely known. morning sun. Herodotus also spoke about a certain people of the Neuroi, living “on land facing north wind", and forced to flee from there to the country of the Budins (tribes of the Yukhnov culture) only because their land was overrun by some terrible snakes. These historians date the events to approximately the sixth century BC. Of course, no people will ever move because of mythical monsters, but it is more than likely that they will flee from quite real monsters, especially if they were very bloodthirsty.
At one time, the world-famous expert on Ancient Rus', Academician B. A. Rybakov, was engaged in research on issues related to “Russian lizards”. Of particular interest to us is his analysis of the well-known epic about the Novgorod merchant Sadko. This epic turned out to be so encrypted that only such a great scientist could understand its essence and meaning.
First of all, let’s make a reservation that B.A. Rybakov, as well as the famous historian of the 19th century N.I. Kostomarov, considered the epic about Sadko to be one of the most ancient in the Novgorod lands, dating back to pre-Christian times. Moreover, in the original version, Sadko does not travel, but simply comes with a harp to the shore of a lake-river and plays his songs there to a certain water king. The image of the king in the epic is implied to be anthropomorphic; it is not described in any way. However, in a number of cases he is referred to as a certain “Uncle Ilmen” or “Queen Belorybitsa”. Next, the water king, who liked Sadko’s game, comes out of the water and promises him for the pleasure he has received a constant rich catch of fish and even the capture of a goldfish (“fish of the golden feather”). After which Sadko rapidly grows rich, becoming the most respected person in Novgorod. Academician B.A. Rybakov in his fundamental work “Paganism ancient Rus'“Writes on this occasion: “In connection with our topic (the topic of the lizard. - V.Sh.’s note), the authentic harp of the first half of the 12th century from excavations in Novgorod is of particular interest. The gusli is a flat trough with grooves for six pegs. The left (from the guslar) side of the instrument is sculpted, like the head and part of the body of a lizard. Two small heads of “lizards” are drawn under the lizard’s head. On back side gusle depicts a lion and a bird. Thus, in the ornamentation of the gusel, all three life zones are present: sky (bird), earth (horse, lion) and underwater world (lizard). The lizard does not dominate everyone and, thanks to its three-dimensional sculpturality, unites both planes of the instrument. Such decorated harp is depicted on a guslar bracelet of the 12th-13th centuries. There is a harp with the image of two horse heads (a horse is a common sacrifice to a merman); there are harps on which, like the ornament on Ukrainian banduras, waves are depicted (harps of the 14th century)... The ornamentation of the Novgorod harps of the 11th-14th centuries directly indicates the connection of this underwater kingdom with the lizard. All this is quite consistent with the archaic version of the epic: the guslar pleases the underwater deity, and the deity changes the standard of living of the poor but cunning guslar.”
And immediately the question: why is the harp, among real animals, suddenly depicted one mythical one - a lizard? So maybe it’s not mythical at all, but just as real as the others, and even superior to them in strength and power, and therefore more revered?
Numerous images of the lizard found during excavations in the Novgorod and Pskov regions, primarily on house structures and bucket handles, are almost an image of a very real creature with a large, elongated muzzle and a huge mouth with clearly defined large teeth. These images may well correspond to mososaurs or kronosaurs, which confuse the minds of scientists with new and new rumors about their current existence. And the nature of the sacrifices made to the “underwater king” also clarifies a lot. This is not some abstract fetish, but a very real animal, and at the same time quite large to satisfy the very voracious lake deity. This animal is sacrificed to the underwater monster not when necessary, but mostly in winter, that is, in the hungriest time. The famous historian and folklorist A.N. Afanasyev wrote about it this way: “The peasants buy a horse, fatten it with bread for three days, then put on two millstones, coat its head with honey, braid red ribbons into its mane and lower it into an ice hole at midnight...”
However, apparently, the demanding “underwater king” was not always satisfied with sacrificial horse meat, as the writings that have come down to us say, and transforming “into the image of the fierce beast korkodil,” quite often attacked fishermen and merchants sailing past him in boats, drowning their boats. and eating themselves. There was something to be afraid of such a “king” and why to make abundant sacrifices to him.
Academician Rybakov, analyzing the original versions of the epic about Sadko, even found a very real place of “communication” between the guslar and the underwater king. According to his calculations, it took place on Lake Ilmen, near the source of the Volkhov, on the western (left, so-called “Sofia”) bank of the river. This place is known as Peryn. In 1952, during excavations by archaeologists in Peryn, a temple was discovered, which Rybakov refers to as the sanctuary of the “crocodile” in Peryn. There is an opinion that it was from there that the later appearance of the god Perun occurred...
Academician Rybakov also drew attention to the very stable and clearly defined habitat of the “underwater king”: “The cult of the ruler of the underwater underworld had little connection with the agricultural worldview of the Slavic tribes of the forest-steppe south... But in the lake north the image of a lizard is frequent and stable... But also in the Slavic In ancient times, the lizard is found, especially in the northern region...”
Well, what do the chronicles say? The oldest mention of an underwater serpent dates back to the 11th century. These are the so-called “Conversations of Gregory the Theologian on the trial of the city,” directed against paganism and included in the chronicle under the year 1068. In the section dedicated to fishing and related matters pagan rituals, it is written: “...Ov (someone who) devoured his new food, having a lot (thanksgiving sacrifice for a rich catch) ... the god who created heaven and earth trembled. He names the river a goddess, and the beast that lives in it, calling it a god, I demand to create.”
And here is what an unknown Pskov chronicler of the 16th century writes: “In the summer of 7090 (1582) ... That same summer, lute animals came out of the river and closed the path; there are a lot of people. And people were horrified and praying to God all over the earth. And she hid again and beat them up” (Pskov Chronicles. M., 1955, vol. 2, p. 262).
However, the appearance of “corcodiles” was not always so terrible. The German traveler-scientist Sigismund Herberstein left us sensational messages on this matter in his “Notes on Muscovy,” written in the first half of the 16th century. The facts cited by Herberstein (and historians today have no doubt about their veracity) can plunge any skeptic into amazement, for the German scientist talks about the lizards domesticated by Russian people! So, Herberstein writes, speaking about the northwestern lands of Rus': “There are still a lot of idolaters there who feed in their homes, as if they were penates, some kind of snakes with four short legs, like lizards with black and fat body, having no more than 3 spans (60-70 cm) in length and called givoites. IN allotted days people cleanse their house and with some kind of fear, the whole family reverently worships them, crawling out to the food provided. Misfortune is attributed to the one whose snake deity was poorly fed” (S. Herberstein. Notes on Muscovite affairs. St. Petersburg, 1908, p. 178).
So, we can say with confidence that real lizards, of several species (both underwater predators and domesticated land ones), felt quite well a few centuries ago, thus surviving almost to our historical times (after all, from the events described we delays the life of some eight generations!)
But what happened next? Why did these seemingly so revered and sacred animals not survive to this day? Most likely, that’s why they didn’t live, because they were too revered! And again let's turn to the chronicles. The fact is that for Christianity, which was implanted in the 11th-16th centuries in the northwestern Russian lands, the pagan lizard god was, of course, the most dangerous ideological opponent, because it was impossible to convince people to renounce the powerful and deified animal they knew well. There could most likely be only one way out in this situation: the merciless physical extermination of all sacred animals and at the same time the complete eradication of all memory of them. That is why lizards are referred to in Christian chronicles as “godless and demon-possessed river sorcerers”, “fiends of hell” and “devilish reptiles”. Such epithets meant a clear death sentence for relict animals. The reprisal against the “underwater kings” was merciless. First of all, apparently, they dealt with the domesticated small creatures, and then they began to deal with the river predators. The chronicles tell a very picturesque story about concrete steps in this direction.
Thus, the manuscript of the Great Synodal Library of the 17th century, known among specialists as the “Flower Garden”, narrates: “Our Christian true word... About this cursed sorcerer and sorcerer - how evil was quickly broken and strangled from demons in the river Volkhov and the cursed body was carried by demonic dreams went up the Volkhov River and fled against the Volkhov town, which is called Perynya. And with much weeping from the unknown voice, the cursed one was buried with a great filthy funeral feast. And he piled his grave high above him, as if he were filthy.”
The “Flower Garden” very eloquently says that the “corcodile” swam not down, but up the river, i.e. he was alive, then somehow was “strangled” in the river, perhaps died a natural death, but most likely was apparently still killed by Christians, after which his body, washed ashore, was buried with the greatest solemnity by local pagans. The merciless extermination of river lizards took place simultaneously with a very active convincing of the inhabitants that the “corcodile” was not a god at all, but just an ordinary, albeit very “disgusting” beast. Let us recall the passage we have already mentioned above about the anti-pagan “Conversations of Gregory the Theologian on the Trial of the City,” where it is unequivocally stated that certain people make sacrifices (“they perform rites”) in honor of an ordinary beast living in the river and called God.
Most likely, as the northwestern outskirts of Russia became Christianized on its rivers and lakes, the last representatives of ancient family river lizards. It is possible that, from the point of view of the dominant ideology of that time, everything was done absolutely correctly. And yet I am frankly sorry that our neighbors historical era- the lizards were completely exterminated and did not survive to this day, remaining only on the pages of chronicles, in epics and tales of times past!

However, who knows...

GIANTS IN THE AIR

Once upon a time there was a Serpent Gorynych
Ethnographer and historian Ivan Kirillov suggests that it was once quite real creature, living on the territory of Russia.
Kirillov calls himself a “dragon expert” with a grin. For many years he has been studying myths and legends about this creature. And one day I came to the conclusion that the Serpent Gorynych from Russian fairy tales could well have had a living prototype.
“It all started when I decided to clarify the origin of the winged serpent on the coat of arms of Moscow,” says Ivan Igorevich. - The serpent fighter rider first appeared on the coat of arms of the Moscow Principality under Ivan III. The seal of Grand Duke Ivan (1479) has been preserved, which depicts a warrior striking a small winged dragon with a spear. Soon the image of this scene became known to any resident of Russia. The spearman began to be minted on the smallest coin. That’s why, by the way, people nicknamed her “penny”...
Many researchers perceive the image of St. George the Victorious piercing the Serpent as a beautiful artistic image, symbolizing the confrontation between Good and Evil. He once thought so too. But one day he came across an image of a 12th-century fresco from the Church of St. George in Staraya Ladoga. And there is a horseman with a spear, but in that fresco the winged serpent is not killed, but dragged on a string, like a prisoner or a pet.
This image, which appeared much earlier than the official coat of arms of Muscovy, introduces, according to Kirillov, new semantic elements into the familiar picture with a spear-bearer. A tower with windows, a woman leading a strange creature resembling a crocodile or a giant lizard, all this looks very lifelike and looks more like a sketch from life than some kind of artistic image-symbol.
“Then I thought: didn’t such an event actually happen?” - Ivan Igorevich continues the story. “Soon I came across another document confirming my fantastic version. The Austrian ambassador Sigismund Herberstein, who worked in Russia in 1517 and 1526, mentioned strange lizards not typical of our fauna in his memoirs. This is what he wrote in his diary: “This area abounds in groves and forests in which you can observe terrible phenomena. It is there that to this day there are a lot of idolaters who feed in their homes some snakes with four short legs, like lizards, with a black and fat body ... "
Did our ancestors really see with their own eyes the fabulous “mountain snakes” and even knew how to tame them? Ivan Kirillov collected historical documents that can serve, if not direct, then indirect evidence that “Russian dragons” could exist in reality. Here are some of these materials.
In Russian national library Among the manuscripts is an old diary of a priest. Title page lost, so the name of the eyewitness is unknown. But the entry he made in 1816 is quite remarkable: “While sailing on a boat along the Volga River, we saw a huge flying kite, which carried a man with all his clothes in his mouth. And all that was heard from this unfortunate man was: “Them!” Their!" And the snake flew over the Volga and fell with a man into the swamps..."
Further, the priest reports that on that day he had a chance to see the Serpent again: “Near the Kolominsky district of the village of Uvarov there is a wasteland called Kashiryaziva. We arrived there to spend the night with more than 20 people. Two hours or more passed, the area suddenly lit up, and the horses suddenly rushed into different sides. I looked up and saw a fiery serpent. It meandered over our camp at the height of two or three bell towers. It was three arshins or more long and stood above us for a quarter of an hour. And all this time we were saying prayer...”
An interesting piece of evidence was discovered in the archives of the city of Arzamas. Here is a short excerpt from this document: “In the summer of June 1719, for 4 days there was a great storm in the district, a tornado and hail, and many livestock and all living creatures perished. And the serpent fell from the sky, scorched by God’s wrath, and stank disgustingly. And remembering the Decree of God by the grace of our All-Russian Sovereign Peter Alekseevich from the summer of 1718 about Kunshtkamora and the collection for her of various wonders, monsters and freaks of all sorts, stones of heaven and other miracles, this serpent was thrown into a barrel of strong double wine ... "
The paper was signed by Zemstvo Commissioner Vasily Shtykov. Unfortunately, the barrel did not reach the St. Petersburg Museum. Either it got lost along the way, or the disdainful Russian peasants poured “double wine” (that’s what vodka used to be called) from a barrel. It’s a pity, perhaps today the Serpent Gorynych, preserved in alcohol, would be kept in the Kunstkamera.
Among the memoirs, one can highlight the story of the Ural Cossacks, who became eyewitnesses to an incredible incident in 1858. Here is a record of their memories: “A miracle happened in the Kyrgyz Bukeev horde. In the steppe, not far from the Khan’s headquarters, in broad daylight, a huge serpent, as thick as the largest camel and twenty fathoms long, fell from the sky to the ground. For a minute the serpent lay motionless, and then, curled up in a ring, raised its head two fathoms from the ground and hissed strongly, piercingly, like a storm.
People, livestock and all living things fell on their faces in fear. They thought that the end of the world had come. Suddenly a cloud descended from the sky, approached the serpent about five fathoms and stopped above it. The serpent jumped onto the cloud. It enveloped him, swirled and went into the heavens.”
“All this is so incredible that I, of course, don’t take such stories too seriously,” says dragon expert Kirillov. - But somewhere in my soul I believe that something like this is not excluded... According to the most common version, the mythological Serpent-Dragon owes its origin to the remains of dinosaurs, which our ancestors found from time to time. At first glance, everything is simple and clear... But a careful analysis of this version reveals a number of its shortcomings.
Firstly, myths about the Dragon are widespread, and easily accessible dinosaur remains are found only in the desert regions of Central Asia (in other regions, fossil remains are most often discovered only under thick layers of sediment - it is unlikely that ancient people dug so deep). Secondly, the bones of dinosaurs are very different from each other, and Dragons have different nations They look like twin brothers. Maybe the fairy tales did not originate on ancient bones, but after encounters with living dinosaurs that have survived to this day? It’s a crazy assumption, but how can one not make it when reading the testimony, and not so far from the distant past?
So biologists recently confirmed to me that the “fire-breathing Gorynych” from the fairy tale does not contradict science at all. It is theoretically possible that there are cavities in the body of an animal where methane (swamp gas) is formed as a result of decomposition. When exhaled, this gas can ignite (think swamp fires). By the way, this assumption is confirmed by eyewitness testimony, which invariably indicates a stench or foul breath emanating from the Serpent...
Could our acquaintance have flown across the Atlantic? Or maybe there is a Gorynych there?

Chronicle of the Diving Serpent

From time to time the press reports that in the New World livestock and even people are attacked by mysterious flying creatures that look like huge birds or bats, and sometimes having the appearance of monsters reminiscent of fairy-tale dragons
On July 25, 1977, at about eight o'clock in the evening, 10-year-old Marlon Lowe from Lawndale, Illinois, experienced a severe shock from an incident that, according to scientists, could not have happened at all - the boy was picked up from the ground and carried through the air by a huge bird.
The first person to realize that something unusual was happening in the sky was a local resident named Cox. He saw that from the southwestern side two birds, similar to giant condors, were diving into the village. And then, to his utter amazement, the following happened. One of the birds, having dropped very low, silently flew up from behind to Marlon, who at that time was running along the street in pursuit of his friends, grabbed his claws into the shoulders and back of the mortally frightened boy and lifted him into the air. The second bird, as if protecting the first, stayed behind and slightly higher.
This whole incomprehensible picture unfolded before the eyes of Marlon’s mother, Ruth Lowe, who rushed after the birds with a loud cry. Having carried the desperately screaming and kicking boy through the air for about ten meters, the predatory creature unclenched its claws, and Marlon plopped down on the ground, fortunately suffering only scratches and bruises. And huge birds, almost the size of a hang glider, soared up and flew away in a northeast direction. Six people were eyewitnesses to the incident.
According to Mrs. Lowe, the black birds resembled monstrous condors with a wingspan of at least 2.5 meters, their beaks reached 15 centimeters, and a white ring stood out clearly on necks almost half a meter long.
Despite the presence of six witnesses, the incident, which soon became known throughout the country, seemed so incredible that, with the exception of eyewitnesses, very few believed in it. And the local animal control officer directly accused Ruth Lowe of lying.
And about 1,500 kilometers southwest, near the Texas-Mexico border, even stranger events took place. At half past ten on the evening of January 14, 1976, Armando Grimaldo was sitting in the yard of his home in the city of Raymondville, in the very south of the state. It was a quiet, unwinterly warm evening, Armando went out to smoke in the fresh air.
“I suddenly wanted to walk around the house,” he said later. “I got up from the bench and took a few steps along the wall. But as soon as I turned the corner, something grabbed me from behind, grabbing my clothes and skin with sharp claws. I managed to break free, looked back and saw this “something.” I have always been considered a not timid person, but then I became so scared that my hair stood on end.
The creature that had grabbed onto Armando swooped down on top of him. He had never seen anything like this monster before. Almost two meters tall, with wings spread over four meters, with dark brown, smooth skin with an oily tint and with huge round eyes glowing with red light.
Armando screamed and started to run, but tripped and fell. Rising to his feet, he felt the powerful claws of an unknown beast tearing his clothes, but managed to escape a second time - he ran to a large spreading tree and pressed his back against the trunk. And the creature that attacked Armando, breathing heavily and hoarsely, soared up and disappeared from sight.
We can consider that Armando Grimaldo was luckier than Joe Suarez's goat from a neighboring town, which on December 26, 1975, the owner left overnight in a cattle pen, tied to the fence behind the barn. In the morning, Joe found it literally torn to pieces. There were no traces around what was left of the goat, and the police called to the scene were unable to offer any reasonable version of the death of the animal.
For more than a month, a mysterious bloodthirsty creature terrorized the inhabitants of the valley in the lower reaches of the Rio Grande River, separating southern part Texas from Mexico. Local residents have already begun to call him “that big ferocious bird.” For those who only heard stories about her robberies, they, as a rule, caused amazement combined with disbelief. Those who saw her with their own eyes answered questions sparingly, and their faces became gloomy. And near the nearby city of Brownsville, a similar creature once inexplicably entered Alverico Guajardo’s caravan, which served as his home. After Alverico went inside and turned on the light, he saw, in his words, “something completely unlike an earthly creature.” When it became light inside the room, this “something” rose to its feet and wrapped membranous wings around itself, similar to the wings of a huge bat, and stared at Alverico with glowing red eyes. The numb Alverico was unable to move and only silently looked into those unblinking, hypnotizing eyes. Two or three minutes passed like this. Finally the creature moved, backed away to the opposite door with a dull growl, then jumped to the ground and disappeared into the darkness.
Another meeting with a similar creature occurred on February 24, 1976, about 400 kilometers to the north, in the city of San Antonio. Here, three young teachers, driving to work along a deserted suburban road, saw, as one of them later said, “a huge bird, the wings of which had a span of six meters, if not more. And she flew over us so low that her shadow completely covered the entire road.” Then the girls saw a second “huge bird” circling over a herd of cows grazing on a hillock not far from the road. From afar, the “bird” seemed to them like a gigantic seagull.
Later, the teachers decided to see if there was anything similar to what they saw in the morning sky in special books. Found. The only catch was that the “birds” they met on the road surprisingly resembled pteranodons - flying dinosaurs that went extinct 150 million years ago.
By mid-1976, talk of "big birds" had gradually died down in the Rio Grande Valley as local residents stopped encountering them. However, on September 14, 1982, at approximately 4 p.m., James Thomson, an emergency medical technician from Harlingen, about sixty kilometers north of Brownsville, saw a very large, bird-like creature flying very low over Highway 100 at a distance of about 45 meters from him.
“At first I thought it was a radio-controlled model airplane landing,” Thomson told the local Valley Morning Star newspaper. “But when the creature, having flown over the highway and descended to the very grass, suddenly flapped its wings, I realized that it was something alive. It was not covered with feathers, its skin was black or dark gray. I watched as it rose up and flew away. I think it looked a lot like a pterodactyl."
International Society cryptozoologists, having analyzed information about observations of “big birds”, noted that they all occurred only 300 kilometers east of the Mexican territory of the Sierra Madre Oriental - one of the least explored areas North America.
In nature, there are two species of birds that are not inferior to the Andean condor in size and wingspan; the royal and wandering albatrosses. These are very large seabirds can weigh up to 12 kilograms and have a wingspan of more than four meters. But they live exclusively in coastal zone seas and oceans, the color of their plumage is dominated by gray and white tones, and none of them is able to fly while holding 35-kilogram prey in its claws.
In 1980, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History displayed skeletal fragments of the largest known bird to ever fly in the sky. These fossilized fragments were discovered in salt marsh deposits along the banks of the Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo River in the Argentine province of La Pampa, 540 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires. Judging by the parts of the skeleton found, the huge bird, called Argentavis magnificens, had a wingspan of more than eight (!) meters, and its length from beak to tail exceeded 3.5 meters. This bird lived in the Miocene period of the Cenozoic era, that is, from 23 to 5 million years ago.

Information from the site: http://www.smoliy.ru/lib/000/001/00000180/nepomn_100_velikih_zagadok_prirody6.htm

1. Introduction

2. Dragons really exist on Earth!

3. Conclusion

4. List of references used

5. Applications

From the early childhood I was interested in dragons, their life and behavior. Therefore, I decided to tell you a little about these wonderful, beautiful, amazing animals.

Not much is known about dragonology, perhaps the most ancient and intriguing science. Although dragons have been studied since time immemorial, they still remain the most mysterious of all earthly creatures. According to modern scientists who study the diverse flora and fauna of the Earth, dragon science is fraught with exciting new discoveries.

Dragon experts refute the opinion that there are no dragons at all, and never were. When scientists first heard about the platypus, a creature with a duck's beak, horns and a neck like a giraffe, in 1797, their reaction was to laugh. And in 1901, scientists realized that this was a new species of animal and named it okapi. Alas, no brave souls have yet been found to equip an expedition to search for dragons, as was the case with the platypus...

After reading Charles Darwin’s work “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” dragonologists came to the conclusion that, like other earthly creatures, dragons underwent evolution and perfectly adapted to their habitats. Evolution is a change in the structure of the body to simplify life. Skeptics (people who do not believe in them) argue that a dragon cannot have four legs and two wings, since any vertebrate on Earth has no more than four limbs. But this is a consequence of the evolution of dragons.

Dragons live in almost all parts of the world, so a researcher will not need to travel to the ends of the earth to study them. Some travelers confuse dragons with sea serpents - giant squids.

These are different creatures, a dragon, unlike sea ​​serpent, flies, breathes fire, lives on land and hoards treasures.

Dragons are:

European (their supposed habitat is the caves of the German Alps, forests, wells, ponds), Mexican (ancient Mexican cities lost in the jungle), ice (their lairs are in Greenland icebergs), Tibetan (between the peaks of the Himalayas), Chinese (in mountain waterfalls in China), Australian marsupials (in the blue mountains of Australia with the breath of dragons), African (deserts). Thus, it becomes clear that dragons live in various places, suitable for their habitat: forests, mountains, steppes, ice, jungles and deserts. Dragons have a variety of colors: red, green, white, golden, depending on the type of dragon. They range in size from 7 to 15 meters in length, feed on cattle, squid, polar bears, deer, domestic animals, camels, mountain bulls, fish, birds, and can attack people. When attacking, they use claws, horns, ice breath, fire from the mouth, and a tail for strangulation. Almost all dragons can talk (not all meaningfully), have a penchant for jewelry, regularly change their skin, fly, and tenderly care for eggs and the young that emerge from the egg three years after laying.

A dragon can be tamed, but this can only be done easily by someone who has raised a dragon and made friends with it. You can use a secret spell, but when its effect ends, the dragon becomes extremely irritated. Flying on a dragon is only worth it in extreme cases, and always with his consent, but the sensations are amazing!

All parts of the dragon's body (skin, teeth, scales, feathers, blood, bones, dust collected from the walls of caves, eyes, horns) have magical powers and are used in magic for various purposes and for healing.

There is no more beast in the world,

Who can be compared to the mighty dragon,

His immeasurable power and greatness.

I told you about dragons so that you know that there may even be something that we are not aware of. Be considerate and kind to all living beings! Don't try to convince those who don't believe in dragons and don't share your interest in them. Let's protect the remaining dragons on Earth and all endangered animals.

Bibliography

· Dr. Ernest Drake “Dragonology”, publishing house “Makhaon”, Moscow, 2008. Translation by N. Ivanov and V. Bolotnikov

It turns out that dragons - mysterious monsters with the body of a snake, the wings of a bird, several heads, fiery breath, endowed with intelligence - still live among us!

Great and terrible

According to one ancient description dating back to 600 AD. e., the dragon is “the largest of the snakes and, in general, the largest of all creatures living on Earth. It has a large snout and narrow blowholes through which it breathes and sticks out its tongue.”

Dragons were usually depicted as huge snake-like monsters that terrified people. From their roar, they say, the earth trembled. Moreover, dragons that feed on human flesh always swallowed beautiful maidens whole, which is why both heroes and knights considered it a matter of honor to defeat the monster on the spot.

However, our ancestors were real philosophers. The charter is afraid of fire-breathing monsters, they simply turned them into an ordinary symbol of water and fire. Historians have gone a little further. According to the hypothesis of scientists A. Leroy-Gourhan and V. Ya. Propp, the dragon is a symbol of the unification of the worlds: the upper (as evidenced by its resemblance to a bird) and the lower (snake’s body).

Only these monsters were not so terrible. There are cases when they went in peace to people. Thus, in ancient Chinese mythology, the winged dragon helped the hero Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, to lay channels for water supply with his tail. The monster also helped two Slavic blacksmiths. They harnessed the dragon to a plow and with its help dug the riverbed of the Dnieper. And Nikita Kozhemyaka managed to pacify the Serpent Gorynych and plow the land on him. Moreover, dragons often gave people the treasures they protected. True, ungrateful people usually killed them out of fear. Only the flying Snake Poluchato from the Volga subethnos of the Katskari always remained alive, since it brought wealth to those who were not afraid of hard work.

By the way, many of the descendants of the Katskars still place a saucer of milk on the windowsill in order to lure the Snake of good luck.
If we consider that the word is material, and myths always have a basis in reality, we can safely assume that the images of such monsters were hardly created from scratch. This is confirmed by many scientists! Recently, researchers from the International Union of Cryptozoologists made an unexpected and sensational conclusion: on the coat of arms of Moscow, St. George the Victorious pierces a real (!) small winged dragon with a spear, and not a mythical one! In general, ancient Russian icon painting is full of monsters of various stripes - blood-red, with clouds of fire flying out of their mouths, and very tiny ones, which are led on a leash, like a pet dog. Head of the scientific environmental program RICANN (Russian Intellectual Corps of Current scientific directions) Irina Tsareva believes that these animals could well live in Russian forests. Even though the authors of epics, epics and icons slightly exaggerated the images of their works, they still used real stories as a basis. It is quite possible that in the European part of Russia there were bloodthirsty monsters tearing travelers to shreds. In any case, such cases were recorded in documents! Thus, one collection of Russian chronicles contains news from Novgorod from 1582: “...In the summer, the Corcodiles Lutia came out of the river and closed the way, eating many people, and terrifying people and praying to God throughout the whole earth. And she hid again, and beat up others...” Since crocodiles were never found in Russia, scientists assumed that the chronicler meant an ordinary dragon.

However, even today there is a lot of evidence of monsters. Thus, in 1958, geologist, paleontologist and writer Ivan Efremov, in his book “The Road of the Winds,” spoke about his journey to Mongolia, where, according to the descriptions of local residents, there is a monstrous yellow worm, the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, whose poison kills people. There have always been many scientific expeditions in these parts, but no one has been able to give intelligible answers to the question: “What kind of worm is this?” French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal once suggested that the Olgoy-Khorkhoi is a giant reptile that lost its legs during evolution and is capable of spraying poison from a distance...

Russia is also full of eyewitnesses of encounters with dragons. For example, along Lipetsk, Novgorod and Leningrad regions Rumors periodically circulate about encounters with underwater monsters spewing flames from their mouths. Ukraine is also not lagging behind. This is not the first year that rumors about the Black Sea monster at the foot of Karadag have excited the imagination. Dragons and giant snakes are supposedly regularly seen in Africa. The stories of Africans about the ferocious predator “tonpondrano” (“master of sea waters”) with a body covered with scales, 25 meters long, are impressive. In the Algerian desert, they also once shot a 20-meter creature. There are frightening legends about the “master of the forests” of Madagascar - a monster with an elongated body and huge claws. In general, stories about modern monsters can be continued for a very long time, but there is still convincing evidence of their existence!

We say dragon, we mean azhdarchid

For example, in South-East Asia, on several Indonesian islands, lives the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth. These huge monitor lizards reach a length of three meters and feed on monkeys and goats. Their ancestors lived on Earth 2 million years ago. Their descendants in the same form live well today, not even suspecting that, according to Darwin, they had to undergo some kind of evolutionary changes.

By the way, on these same islands other living fossils (phylogenetic relics) have been preserved, almost completely corresponding to those that went extinct tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. This, for example, is the tuatara, or tuatara, the only living representative of the subclass of beak-headed reptiles. His discovery was big surprise for scientists.

Despite the fact that it is common to consider dragons to be predatory flying reptiles, and modern lizards (monitor lizards, iguanas, agaves, chameleons, etc.) to be their descendants that have shredded and forgotten how to fly, this is absolutely not the case. Of course, paleobiologists consider lizards to be the most adapted animal species in the planet’s biosphere, and not younger, but older than dinosaurs! True, those lizards that in ancient times lived next to dinosaurs never flew. Unlike pterosaurs, who learned to do this masterfully. Even despite its bulky body (the largest weighed 300 kg, and the wingspan reached 15 m). True, why and how they flew is still a mystery to scientists. However, such creatures really reigned in the skies of our planet for almost 200 million years in a row. And at the same time, scientists have not fully figured out whether they were reptiles.

By the way, when towards the middle Cretaceous period(90 million years ago) pterosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth, the planet was dominated by the family of azhdarchids - the largest flying lizards in the entire history of the Earth. Giants with long necks glide at speeds of up to 40 km/h, grab unwary game with their powerful mouths and swallow them whole. It is quite possible that the legends about dragons originated from them. Interestingly, paleobiologists call the last azhdarchids Quetzalcoatlus. This is how the Mayan Indians christened their sacred Serpent, which is also associated with many mythological stories. However, according to paleontologists, these mysterious creatures became completely extinct about 65 million years ago. I wonder who the Indians saw, who lived much later than the flying lashers?

Paleontologists have suggested that flying kites were either supplanted by more advanced creatures ideally adapted for flight (birds), or they became extinct due to global cooling that occurred exactly 65 million years ago. Only, according to scientists, some individuals could still survive, which is why they became the prototype of dragons and flying kites in Indian culture. And flying lizards could descend from heaven to earth and go to sedentary lifestyle life. Interestingly, late pterosaurs are surprisingly similar to modern pelicans, which is why the latter are often even called small pterosaurs.

So, according to by and large, don’t be surprised if one day while picking mushrooms in the forest or swimming in a river, a cute little dragon jumps out to meet you. Science allows this possibility. “The absence of finds does not mean that such animals did not exist and do not exist, but only that it was not possible to detect traces of their presence on the planet,” says Dr. biological sciences Alexander Dubrov (Russia).

In any case, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, employee of the Institute of Oceanology named after. Shirshov RAS, also admits the possibility that flying lizards actually lived in forgotten times, and their relatives could well have survived somewhere: “The monsters described in ancient texts existed and can actually exist.” For example, “the prehistoric lobe-finned fish coelacanth. For a long time it was believed that this species became extinct 200-300 million years ago, but quite by accident in the 1990s the fish was caught off the coast South Africa. It is amazing that over many millions of years it has practically not changed, although it has become smaller. The structure of her skeleton is identical to the skeleton of her ancestors who lived 200 million years ago.”

And yet they were!

But Alexey Rozanov, academician, director of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, smashes the version of the real existence of dragons to smithereens: “Dragons are mythological creatures (...) they are similar to lizards and birds at the same time, and this cannot happen simply because lizards "are reptiles, and birds are warm-blooded." Pterosaurs are a different matter. They - " mysterious creatures, about which we know very little, but it is clear that their active flight was possible only when they reached sufficient high level metabolism, and this is an argument in favor of their warm-bloodedness. Today, scientists are inclined to conclude that dinosaurs in general - at least their flying species - were not reptiles. It is quite possible that it was warm-bloodedness that killed the flying lizards.” Reptiles, as it turns out, are better adapted to changing living conditions (evidence from living fossil species - cold-blooded lizards and crocodiles). However, in the rock paintings of the primitive people of Australia, the image of a dragon-like creature is often found. Paleontologists confirm: this is megalania, large lizard, similar to a monitor lizard that once lived on the continent. Only cryptozoologists are absolutely sure that this reptile still leads the life of a hermit in the thicket of the Australian bush. Eyewitnesses described Megalania as a 4-6 meter monitor lizard with huge claws and a brown spotted body color. Although the dragon scares Australians, it never behaves aggressively. Or maybe there are simply no witnesses to his bad temper? But the megalania bones remain. They are still found in different places. Although paleontologists have not yet discovered a complete skeleton, they have already collected about 80% of the skeleton of the Australian dragon from fragments.

But astrologers sincerely believe that dragons are real and incredibly powerful! Only they live not in the real, but in astral world! But we are ready to help always and in everything! A friendly dragon will always become a protector of the home, allow you to look into the future and allow you to use its inexhaustible energy. That is why people have come up with many rituals to channel dragon power in the direction they need.

According to D. J. Conway, an American writer, dragons help a person gather his inner strength, successfully resist imposed control, negative psychological programming and get rid of the pressure of people who cause heartache. By the way, followers of the Fairy tradition, a pagan system of myths based on the lunar Celtic calendar of the Beth-Luis-Nyon trees, also speak about the existence and power of dragons.

According to their view, dragons have a body and are found everywhere, literally in every object. Any action may be a consequence of dragon power. However, it is believed that dragons do not interfere in the affairs of people, considering them to be inferior creatures. Only when something terrible threatens a person, only then will the dragon intervene and definitely provide help. By the way, some dragons love to communicate with children, especially those endowed with parapsychological abilities.

And since living dragons have not yet been recorded on any ocean floor, neither in impenetrable jungle, we can assume that they could well be hiding somewhere...

One of the main storylines of the series is dedicated to Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons: Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion - the last of their kind in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. In real life, things are much more complicated with dragons, however, if you delve into the fauna, you can find very real earthly “dragons,” the ratings of which are offered to Live Science readers.

Sea Dragon

And the first one we will start with will be the olm, or European proteus (Proteus anguinus). Blind (the development of its eyes stops in the early stages of development) pale salamander lives in caves on former territory Yugoslavia and in the foothills of the Venetian Alps. It should be noted that the olm is still able to perceive light thanks to special cells in its skin. This dragon reaches no more than 40 cm in length. For its unusual color and rather strange appearance, the olm received the nicknames “sea dragon” and “human fish” from the local population. In ancient times, people mistook these small pink creatures for the cubs of real mythical dragons - rains sometimes washed the olms out of the caves where they hide.

Dinosaur bat

This strange flying dinosaur lived in the territory modern China approximately 160 million years ago. After archaeologists discovered evidence of its existence, it was named Yi Qi. Scientists have found that the creature's body was covered with feathers during life, but it was distinguished from birds by its webbed, bat-like wings, which ended in phalanges. The researchers suggested that Yi Chi moved by jumping and gliding, like a flying squirrel. Scientists have not decided in the end who is in front of them: a bird or a dinosaur. Perhaps it was a dragon.

Flying dragons

The genus of the subfamily of Afro-Arabian agamas (Agaminae) - arboreal insectivorous lizards - is well known to people. They do not have real wings, but they can glide quite gracefully: their elongated ribs deviate outward, tightly stretching folds of skin that transform into a bright cloth. Thus, they can cover distances of up to 20 m. Many of these “dragons” live in the jungles of South India and Southeast Asia.

bearded dragon

The bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps is a popular pet, even though it is not at all harmless to humans. The head and neck of the lizard are surrounded by a leather bag with spikes, which, in moments of danger or mating, swells, acquiring a dark color. Bearded dragons are native to Australia, but today they are successfully bred in captivity. This “dragon” feeds mainly on insects, but does not disdain small mice.

Dragon Avatar

For its resemblance to the creatures from the famous James Cameron film, this pterosaur (or basal pterodontoid, as scientists later dubbed it) received the nickname Ikrandraco avatar from paleontologists. The dragon avatar lived on the territory of modern China about 120 million years ago and hunted by flying over freshwater lakes and snatching fish from the water. On the creature's lower jaw was an unusual crest with a hooked process. Scientists do not rule out that this hook also somehow helped the dragon avatar to hunt.

frilled lizard

This Australian lizard Chlamydosaurus kingii, in case of danger, shows the enemy a formidable and terrible thing - a brightly colored frill around the neck. In addition, she stands on her hind legs, makes hissing sounds and hits the ground with her tail. If such a sight does not frighten a predator, it certainly leads to confusion. These moments are enough for the lizard to escape. By the way, another purpose of the lizard’s colorful collar is to regulate body temperature. In the morning she catches them Sun rays, and in case of severe overheating, the frill helps to cool it down.

Welsh dragon

Fossils of this predatory cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex were found in Wales in 2014. The age of the find was 201 million years, which dates back to the beginning Jurassic period. And apparently, these are the earliest dinosaur remains found in the UK. The predator was named Dracoraptor hanigani, the first part of which means “dragon”. The fact is that the dragon is the national symbol of Wales, depicted on its flag. The red dragon, or I-Ddraig Goch, is mentioned in the Welsh epic Mabinogion.

Dragon of Komodo Island

Perhaps the most famous of the modern “dragons” is giant monitor lizard Varanus komodoensis, which can reach three meters in length and weigh up to 100 kg. The skin of a monitor lizard is real armor: it is reinforced with small ossifications, osteoderms. It is believed that the first dragon appeared on Komodo Island 40 million years ago. At the same time, the natives of the Indonesian islands do not consider it a dragon at all, calling it a “land crocodile”, or buaya darat.

Forest lizard

These colorful creatures with impressive dragon-like spikes on their backs were discovered in the northeast National Park Cordillera Azul National Park in Peru in 2013. They belong to the group of forest lizards, and their bright colors help them hide from predators in tropical thickets.

Dinosaurs in miniature, little dragons, whatever they call them. And these are all the lizards scurrying around us, a suborder of reptiles from the order Scaly. These include all scaly animals, except snakes and two-year-olds. Look at this beauty of the planet's animal world.

Today in the world there are almost 6,000 species tailed reptiles.

Representatives of various families differ in size, color, habits, habitat; some exotic species are listed in the Red Book. In nature, the most common reptile can be considered a true lizard, the average body length of which is 10-40 cm.

Unlike snakes, lizards have movable, separated eyelids, as well as an elastic, elongated body with long tail, covered with keratinized scales, which change several times per season. The paws are clawed.

The lizard's tongue can have different shapes, colors and sizes; it is usually movable and easily pulled out of the mouth. It is with their tongue that many lizards catch prey.

While most animals perceive the world in black and white, lizards see their surroundings in orange.

Females of small species of lizards lay no more than 4 eggs, while large ones lay up to 18 eggs. The weight of an egg can vary from 4 to 200 grams. The egg size of the world's smallest lizard, the round-toed gecko, does not exceed 6 mm in diameter. The egg size of the world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, reaches a length of 10 cm.

1. Gila Monster Lizard(HELODERMA SUSPECTUM)

Their bite is poisonous. When bitten, grooves in the tiny, sharp teeth release a painful neurotoxin into the victim's body.

2. Round head(PHRYNOCEPHALUS)

It is called the toad-headed agama - it is small, lives in empty spaces and is distinguished by one feature - communication in round-headed agama occurs with the help of a tail, which they curl, and also interesting body vibrations, with which they quickly bury themselves in the sand. Fancy mouth folds scare away enemies.

3. Infraorder Iguanaiformes

The most striking representative of which is the chameleon, which inhabits Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, Hawaii and some American states.

4. Common iguanas(green)

The iguana is the fastest lizard - the speed of movement on land is 34.9 km/h - recorded in the black iguana (Ctenosaura), living in Costa Rica.

5. Marine iguanas

The marine iguanas of the Galapagos Islands, which Darwin nicknamed “demons of darkness,” spend their time diving underwater and scraping off the rocks overgrown plants on which the iguanas feed.

6. Chameleon

The chameleon is a highly unique reptile. Its toes are webbed, it has an extremely prehensile tail, and it shows its attitude by changing color, binocular-like eyeballs moving independently of each other, while a very long and sticky tongue shoots out and catches its prey.

7. Thin-bodied monitor lizard El Salvador

He, according to data precise measurements, reaches a length of 4.75 m, but approximately 70% of its total length is in the tail.

8. Geckos

Geckos are a large family of small and average size very peculiar lizards, characterized in most cases by biconcave (amphicoelous) vertebrae and the loss of the temporal arches.

9. Commodian monitor

The Komodo dragon is the largest carnivorous lizard in existence, reaching almost three meters in length. The main food of the monitor lizard is rotting meat, and it rots precisely thanks to the monitor lizard, or rather its bite. The monitor lizard pursues the victim, tracks it down, attacks and makes one bite, and the infected saliva, entering the victim’s blood, leads to its infection. Recent studies have also shown that the monitor lizard is capable of producing poison. It can also open its mouth very wide and secrete a special red mucus in order to swallow a victim's corpse of a suitable size whole.

10. Moloch(MOLOCH HORRIDUS)

Despite complete absence any family relationships with horned toads, in the desert the “thorny devil” has the same distinctive features and abilities like them: a body covered with spikes, the ability to change the color of the body in order to be invisible on the sand. The Moloch lizard feeds only on ants.