I still have deep-seated, instinctual nightmares of the merg.
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
123 points (84.7% liked)
Today I Learned
17743 readers
132 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Your post is right up there with that askouija: Put your money in the bag, this is a bag
Ha! I wrote a paper about the meaning of dragons for a undergrad anthropology college course in 2003 and I cited the heck out of this book. Also Mythical Beasts edited by John Cherry.
well we're waiting_judgesmail.gif I mean...dude. You gotta tell us what you got on the paper. How'd you score?
Oh wow. No one ever asks about my undergrad grades anymore. It was a study-abroad in London, UK at Goldsmith's college. I got whatever a UK "D" was at the time, a 55 or something. Thankfully I came with a study-abroad program guide who gave us a "US Grade Equivalent" sheet at the start which said that was a passing grade and I didn't worry about it. For the course "Animals In Medieval Art and Literature" which became 3 credits of Anthropology at my local state university in the United States toward a Bachelor's in Science the following year. I entered grad school 4 months after that in an unrelated field and never used this knowledge for anything but trivia since.
~~Does he offer an explanation on why dragons are winged in plenty myths?~~ EDIT: raptors, illiterate me. Raptors.
TL;DR- dragons are what happen when you mash together big cats, big snakes, and big birds of prey
Got it - thanks. My sight simply skipped past the "raptors" part.
[Thanks also @randomsnark@lemmy.ml ]
The linked article mentions that one of the predator types merged into the dragon is raptors (as in birds of prey, not velociraptors)
They're big and scary enough today, and in the past they were even bigger and scarier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_eagle
Relationship with humans
Some believe that these birds are described in many legends of the Māori mythology, under the names pouākai, Hakawai (or Hōkioi in the North Island).[52][53] According to an account given to Sir George Grey—an early governor of New Zealand—Hōkioi were huge black-and-white birds with yellow-green tinged wings and a red crest. In Māori mythology, Pouākai would prey and kill humans along with moa,[54][55][56] which scientists believe could have been possible if the name relates to the eagle, given the massive size and strength of the bird.[52][57] However, it has also been argued that the "hakawai" and "hōkioi" legends refer to the Austral snipe—in particular the extinct South Island species.[58]
For context, Haast's eagle was about twice the size of today's Harpy eagle, which itself looks like it came out of a nightmare. See photos at https://www.demilked.com/giant-bird-harpy-eagle/
It was endemic to New Zealand, which was first inhabitated much too late for this bird to become the common trope that dragons have been in many cultures.
It seems more likely that it comes down to fossils.
This would be a bear not a lizard. Idiotic premise.