Into The Dragon’s Den: Did Scientists Discover Real Dragon Corpse In Tibet? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Dragons appear in the mythos of nearly every country on Earth. Sometimes they’re protectors, other times teachers, guardians, or even villains. But what remains constant is that people everywhere are captivated by the thought of these giant scaly beasts flying overhead, and maybe even roasting a castle or two. But what if the myth of dragons was something more? What if dragons were real?

No, we haven’t gone off the deep end (yet). FXNewsCall got the inside scoop on a video that might just make you think twice about what you think you know. If you’re ready to enter the dragon’s den, look no further.

“A dragon shown in the video [uploaded to YouTube by Bhutanese station Radio Valley 99] is roughly 12 feet in width and lifeless. It’s lower limb on its right side looks severed from its torso and disfigured. Viewers believed it was a genuine documentation of a real-life dragon.”

About mentions that dragons symbolize power, good fortune, creativity, and heaven in Buddhism, which is popular in Tibet. Many mythologies around the world have dragons guarding things of import, such as treasures or artifacts.

And then, of course, there are the dragons in Game of Thrones. Dragons in Westeros are destructive and rarely depicted in a good light (sorry, Khaleesi). But would we really want to see House Targaryen without them? Dragons are also rightly tied to prophecy in Game of Thrones given their mystical nature, and perhaps it’s this aspect about them that fascinates us most.

A short YouTube clip gives an overview of the massive beast, which despite its genuine appearances doesn’t seem to be breathing (air or fire). If it is a fake, someone would have to go through the trouble of creating such a real-looking piece of art, which begs the question: why? If it’s not, wouldn’t we have found others by now?

Ever the bubble-bursters, Snopes looked into the incident and put the dragon back into the lore books. The site mentions that the “dragon” is actually a statue (albeit a very well-done one) created for the Spanish TV show Cuarto Milenio, which explores things like cryptozoology and mythological creatures. All you modern-day knights can go back to your day jobs now.

Okay, so the dragon wasn’t real, but it apparently fooled thousands, if not millions, of visitors. In all fairness, though, some seem to think the fire-breathing monstrosities may have actually roamed the earth at one point. No joke. If you’re ready for the “evidence,” hold tight to your St. George the Dragonslayer medallion and read on.

To support the pro-dragon argument, Jezebel cited Creationist Darek Issacs, who favors a literal interpretation of the Bible. Issacs points out that there are dragons in the bible, so if you support a literal explanation of the Good Book, how can you not think dragons existed at one point? Not exactly proof, but not a refutation either.

Other historians think early tales of dragons could be more figurative, possibly crafted as a way to explain giant dinosaur bones before humanity knew what dinosaurs were, or referring to the massive Komodo Dragons (who can grow as long as 10 feet across). The dragons of myth look somewhat similar to dinosaurs (minus the wings and claws), so this could be a plausible explanation. But it might just make you think twice…

Introducing the Dragon home security system. ? https://t.co/ERzdxWYjdb pic.twitter.com/XiyqQAyoEb

— DeviantArt (@DeviantArt) September 6, 2016

Then, there’s the science aspect. Some claim that dragons would be too massive to fly if they were real. Other large, winged creatures like the Ostrich have this problem, so it’s not a huge stretch that a dragon would, too. While it might seem reserved for fantasy and legends, fire-breathing could actually be one of the more plausible abilities of dragons.

ORPHAN DANI by @AuthorSDriscoll #BookTour THE DRAGON’S BANE CHRONICLES bk1 hostedby @VBTCafe https://t.co/lfyyraWiYO pic.twitter.com/1PHclixWlY

— Cherry Mischievous (@cherrymischivus) September 7, 2016

Discover Magazine points to the case of the Bombardier Beetle to illustrate the possibility of a fire-breathing dragon, explaining that these beetles produce a toxin in an internal combustion chamber and then spit it at any danger. With this in mind, what’s to say a dragon couldn’t manufacture some kind of gas inside it that would then combust when released?

Real or not, dragons will never stop capturing our imagination. What do you think of the statue in Tibet? Obviously fake or a good interpretation of what a dragon might look like?

[Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images For Longleat]