Here Be Dragons
70-65 million BC: Trinisaura Nixapod - Snow-footed Trinisaur
For reasons that are still debated, bird species went extinct in Antarctica at around this time, and their absence allowed dinosaurs to fill some of the niches that even then were becoming associated with birds. The reasons why are unknown, but in this one part of the world, dinosaurs survived the mass extinction.
65-63 million BC: Trinisaura Minor
A small dinosaur species, fit for a depleted world. The Trinisaur Minor was semi aquatic and survived on a diet of seaweed and land plants, along with insects.
64-59 million BC: Draco Antecessor
Basal dragon - while the ancestors of the Leviathon species evolved to be fully aquatic and developed a predatory diet, the early dragons were land dwelling and subsisted on the dwindling supply of vegetation, a diet they were not suited to. Much like Galapagos Iguanas they could not evolve to digest their diet, but they could essentially cook their food slowly in their guts. In the summer this was possible through basking, but the draco antecessor also broke down its food through internal fermentation, especially in winter. This had the added advantage of generating heat.
62-55 million BC: Draco Leporidae - Hare Dragon
Wolf sized predators started to predate on dragons, and size became an advantage, both to fend off hunters and to survive the long winters. Ironically then, the ancestor of all Dragons was one of the smallest herbivore species. Their unique piston muscles allowed them to make use of their stomach muscles to leap great distances, allowing them to escape hunters
55-47 million BC: Draco Pseudopteromyini - Squirrel Dragon
In the heat of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum the forests of Antarctica expanded and times were good for herbivores. The Draco Lepis took to the trees, exchanging leaping for gliding, using their loose back skin as the gliding surface. This allowed them to keep their arms free and take advantage of their strong chest muscles. Some evidence exists that Squirrel Dragons could produce toxic gasses from their mouths as a defensive strategy.
47-41 million BC: Draco Vulpes - Fox Dragon
A larger variety of Squirrel Dragon, this species took up an omnivorous lifestyle of scavanging and some hunting. It is believed it latched onto prey and incapacitated them with its chemical breath, using its wings to steady itself for the kill. This is the earliest specie to be firmly classified as a Great Dragon. It is still debated if the Fox Dragon had fire breathing capabilities,
41-30 million BC: Draco Tarasqua Minor - Lesser Tarascque
The first Great Dragon species to take up an obligate carnivore lifestyle, and, at six foot, one of the biggest predators in the Antarctic at the time. The big innovation of the Tarasque was, however, the power of flight. The strong, gas driven gut muscles of the lesser dragons had migrated to the back, and the ability to fly allowed it to prowl larger areas, which was important for a species that needed to stay active in the ong Antarctic nights.
30-15 million BC: Draco Tarasqua Major - The Greater Tarascque
Very similar to the earlier Tarascque, the big difference was that Tarasqua Major was bigger, some as big as 15 feet long. For the Dragons, larger size meant larger digestive tracts, which were key to its flight. The Great Dragons are the only form of life whose flying ability gets greater the bigger it is. As Antarctica froze, the rest of the southern hemisphere became its hunting grounds. However the declining fauna of the Antarctic had an advantage for a species that nested on the ground. It would forever remain the Dragon's primary spawning ground.
15 million BC - Present Day: Draco Rex - True Dragon
Dragons reached their greatest size as the temperature cooled, and the Draco Rex was adapted for the new ice age. At 30 feet long, the True Dragon is the largest animal in the world and has hunting ranges across the southern hemisphere.
The "True Dragon" earned its name because the animal has been such a major feature of all cultures on Earth - to the extent that it features on the flags of as disparate states as Wales, Bhutan, Mexico, New Zealand, and of course Antarctica. When it was first encountered by Europeans in the 14th century, it was like something out of myth. It seemed unbelievable that such a thing could really exist.
However, it is not the only specie of its type - Leviathans are still a common enough sight at sea, even if climate change and over hunting have seriously impacted their numbers. Smaller Sea Dragons are found across the southern hemisphere, where they fill a similar ecological niche to seals and selkies. Australian Fire Dragons may be smaller, but they are so prolific as to cause major crop damage, in fact in the 1930s the military had to be called in to cull their numbers in an event that is now called The Dragon Wars. New Zealand's own native dragon species survived until the Maoris hunted them to extinction.
In the dry and frozen regions of Antarctica, the True Dragon is the major ecosystem engineer. Their excretions are a major source of nutrients and their burrowing has prevented total freezing of the coast lands. Their dung is also a major source of seeds on a continent where little in the way of native flora survives.
The True Dragon also built the continent in another way - the first explorers, in the early 18th century, arrived in search of their spawning ground and found extreme wealth. The continent was rich in minerals, a good port for whalers, but most importantly, it allowed for the hunting of dragons. Dragon pelts, eggs, meat, and fuel was worth a great deal across the world. So much, in fact, that the continent was seen as too important for any one country to dominate. In 1885, due to its untapped natural wealth, the Berlin Conference granted Antarctica the unique designation of International Dominion. In part, the establishment of the League of Nations and later, the United Nations, was in part because of Dragons.
By the 1940s, that natural wealth had been almost exhausted. True Dragons had become rare, and frightened of humans. Ten years later, the hunting of True Dragons was banned. Modern environmentalism grew out of this effort, which is why the dragon can now be found in the logos of groups like Greeneace and the WWF. The study of dragons drove the development of rocketry, genetics, and Darwin's visit to Antarctica inspired the theory of evolution. Without dragons, modern civilisation would be completely unrecognisable.
Here in Antarctica, dragons are inspiring new generations of scientists, poets, environmentalists, adventurers and many more people who are driven, every year, to explore this place where, due to a heroic international conservation effort, the map still reads
Here be Dragons
Information board, Victoria & Wilhelm International Zoo, Antarctica
