FAQ / Life on Pern / Craft Information / Dragonhealing Craft
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Last updated 27th May 2006 by Eimi
Dragon Anatomy
Skeleton and Limbs
A dragon's skeleton is made up of light, flexible plates, and the ribcage is one large, fused piece. There are 10 vertebra in the neck and 56 in the back. Ball and socket joints in their legs keep their knees from dislocating during takeoffs and flights. Their front limbs have five-fingered (pentadactyl) claws with retractable, sharp talons. Rear limbs have three toes with much softer, nonretractable nails. Their short forelimbs give them a lopsided movement when walking and they tend to relax in an upright position rather than prone. Neck ridges start behind the head knobs and run to the shoulder muscles of the wings, where they grow less prominent. The ridges continue again from behind the wings down the tail.
Hide
A dragon's hide is smooth, soft, strong, and hairless, and should be glossy in color with no hint of grayness. A chalky hide is one of the first signs of illness. Hide color may change tone with age, deepening its original tone, though some browns may develop a greenish tinge and golds a tint of bronze. Female dragons 'glow' when proddy, as their hide color brightens and appears to gleam just before she rises to mate. There are five colors of dragons: Gold (pale yellow to dark antique gold), bronze (golden-green to brownish), brown (tan to chocolate), blue (all shades), and green (all shades). Golds and greens are the female dragons, bronzes, browns, and blues the males.
Internal
A dragon can hold its breath for up to ten minutes. Its lungs are dorsally placed and can expand its chest up to two times its normal size when full. Muscles are a shiny silvery-gray, and the back legs are massively muscled for takeoffs. There are two stomachs, one for food and one for firestone. A weyrling dragon eats 7-8 times per day, but an adult eats two times per sevenday. Several hearts beat in the ribcage, placed similarly to those of humans. A dragon is warm-blooded and its usual body temperature is 35 degrees Celcius (about 90 degrees Farenheit). Their 'blood' is a green ichor because it is copper based, and gives their flesh a greenish tinge.
Head
A dragon's head is more pointed and triangular than a fire lizard's. A dragon is hatched without all his teeth, with the canines appearing sometime in their first turn. At adulthood, a dragon will have 48 teeth. The front teeth are used for hunting and the back molars for chewing firestone. Their tongue is forked.
A dragon's sense of smell is less developed than a human's (which is why they don't notice the stink of firestone), but they can detect "strange" or unusual scents.
The head knobs of a dragon are more prominant than that of a fire lizard and they have no ears. The head knob is thought to act as ears, as they react to noises that are not related to their telepathic abilities.
They have multifaceted eyes that appear to whirl, which is merely a trick of light off the facets. The speed of the whirling indicates their level of emotion. The color indicates emotion: blue/green is content, yellow is alarm, red-orange is anger, red is hunger, white is danger, gray is pain, and purple is mating, lust, or love. They have no eyelashes, merely eyeridges, and three sets of eyelids. The innermost eyelid is transparent, and used particularly for underwater swimming. The two outer eyelids get gradually thicker, and the main time a dragon will close his or her outermost eyelids is to sleep. Eyes protrude outward, giving them peripheral vision to see above, to the sides, and beyond. Dragons can also see air currents, which aids in Threadfall. Dragons can look through their riders eyes.
Telepathy
A dragon can bespeak anyone, but refuses as most seem to find this a distasteful action, as does bespeaking a watchwher. Speaking to fire lizards does not seem to bother them as much, although most only speak to them if bored. Dragons' short term memory lasts 2-3 days. Once a dragon is past their prime, the less they can concentrate. Dragons find it hard to remember other riders' names and frequently slur them, which is partly the origin of the honorific. They don't understand cause and effect - just because they see their rider making new riding straps, they don't necessarily associate it with increased safety during the next Threadfall. Dragons are easy-going and very mild-mannered, and rarely offer unsolicited opinions. They are unaggressive and would only attack a human if their rider was in danger. They have an excellent sense of spatial perception, which explains how they avoid mid-air collisions when coming from between
Tail
Dragons have forked tails, and their sphincter is in the fork. They store excrement for up to five days in the tail, then eliminate while between. Those whose dragons cannot between, such as weyrlings or injured dragons, must muck out their dragon's couch or weyr. The genitalia are under a pouchlike flap where the tail joins the body and are only exposed during mating.
Mating
A few days before rising, a gold or green and her rider may have a period of proddiness. The signs vary from pair to pair - can include irritability, moodiness, or being overly affectionate. The dragon's color will deepen and brighten a day before rising, although greens can rise with little or no warning due to something such as Threadscore throwing their cycle off. Greens rise to mate more often than the fertile golds, who usually rise to blood from sleep. Golds are very possessive of their possible mates and will fight to the death if another gold rises at the same time. Greens do not share this possessiveness, and the only side effective of multiple green risings in a Weyr is no more than an increased number of disappointed males.
Wing
The wing is 1 and 2/3 the dragon's length. Half of the wing has bones shaped similarly to an arm from shoulder to finger joint, including an elbow. Dragons have emmense strength in their shoulders and upper wing to provide lift power. The elbow is slightly flexed and the leading edge is a membrane that goes from shoulder to finger joint. The first two bones run almost together, to form the outer spar portion of the lub. The remaining two wing bones fan out from the finger joint. The inner bone almost perpendicular from the spar bone and ends midway between the body and the forestay finger tip. From the dorsal spire to this inner bone is the primary mainsail, the largest of the sails, which supports most of the body weight. The secondary mainsail runs from the inner bone to the midbone, and the spar mainsail runs from the midbone to the sparbone(s). The smaller two mainsails provide some support for body weight, but their primary purpose is to provide manueverability. The outermost, or forestay, tip functions almost independantly, and is called the 'fingersail'. Cartilage provides additional support from arm and finger joint to the leech or trailing edge. The wing membranes are almost translucent in fire lizards, and are nearly so in dragons. The membranes are thicker over bones and at mast attachments, and are much stronger than they appear. A dragon can still fly with 1/3 of the sails damaged. As the dragon grows older, the fingertip and elbow joints harden, lessening their manueverability.
See Also: Dragonhealing Craft
Referenced By: Dragonhealing
A dragon's skeleton is made up of light, flexible plates, and the ribcage is one large, fused piece. There are 10 vertebra in the neck and 56 in the back. Ball and socket joints in their legs keep their knees from dislocating during takeoffs and flights. Their front limbs have five-fingered (pentadactyl) claws with retractable, sharp talons. Rear limbs have three toes with much softer, nonretractable nails. Their short forelimbs give them a lopsided movement when walking and they tend to relax in an upright position rather than prone. Neck ridges start behind the head knobs and run to the shoulder muscles of the wings, where they grow less prominent. The ridges continue again from behind the wings down the tail.
Hide
A dragon's hide is smooth, soft, strong, and hairless, and should be glossy in color with no hint of grayness. A chalky hide is one of the first signs of illness. Hide color may change tone with age, deepening its original tone, though some browns may develop a greenish tinge and golds a tint of bronze. Female dragons 'glow' when proddy, as their hide color brightens and appears to gleam just before she rises to mate. There are five colors of dragons: Gold (pale yellow to dark antique gold), bronze (golden-green to brownish), brown (tan to chocolate), blue (all shades), and green (all shades). Golds and greens are the female dragons, bronzes, browns, and blues the males.
Internal
A dragon can hold its breath for up to ten minutes. Its lungs are dorsally placed and can expand its chest up to two times its normal size when full. Muscles are a shiny silvery-gray, and the back legs are massively muscled for takeoffs. There are two stomachs, one for food and one for firestone. A weyrling dragon eats 7-8 times per day, but an adult eats two times per sevenday. Several hearts beat in the ribcage, placed similarly to those of humans. A dragon is warm-blooded and its usual body temperature is 35 degrees Celcius (about 90 degrees Farenheit). Their 'blood' is a green ichor because it is copper based, and gives their flesh a greenish tinge.
Head
A dragon's head is more pointed and triangular than a fire lizard's. A dragon is hatched without all his teeth, with the canines appearing sometime in their first turn. At adulthood, a dragon will have 48 teeth. The front teeth are used for hunting and the back molars for chewing firestone. Their tongue is forked.
A dragon's sense of smell is less developed than a human's (which is why they don't notice the stink of firestone), but they can detect "strange" or unusual scents.
The head knobs of a dragon are more prominant than that of a fire lizard and they have no ears. The head knob is thought to act as ears, as they react to noises that are not related to their telepathic abilities.
They have multifaceted eyes that appear to whirl, which is merely a trick of light off the facets. The speed of the whirling indicates their level of emotion. The color indicates emotion: blue/green is content, yellow is alarm, red-orange is anger, red is hunger, white is danger, gray is pain, and purple is mating, lust, or love. They have no eyelashes, merely eyeridges, and three sets of eyelids. The innermost eyelid is transparent, and used particularly for underwater swimming. The two outer eyelids get gradually thicker, and the main time a dragon will close his or her outermost eyelids is to sleep. Eyes protrude outward, giving them peripheral vision to see above, to the sides, and beyond. Dragons can also see air currents, which aids in Threadfall. Dragons can look through their riders eyes.
Telepathy
A dragon can bespeak anyone, but refuses as most seem to find this a distasteful action, as does bespeaking a watchwher. Speaking to fire lizards does not seem to bother them as much, although most only speak to them if bored. Dragons' short term memory lasts 2-3 days. Once a dragon is past their prime, the less they can concentrate. Dragons find it hard to remember other riders' names and frequently slur them, which is partly the origin of the honorific. They don't understand cause and effect - just because they see their rider making new riding straps, they don't necessarily associate it with increased safety during the next Threadfall. Dragons are easy-going and very mild-mannered, and rarely offer unsolicited opinions. They are unaggressive and would only attack a human if their rider was in danger. They have an excellent sense of spatial perception, which explains how they avoid mid-air collisions when coming from between
Tail
Dragons have forked tails, and their sphincter is in the fork. They store excrement for up to five days in the tail, then eliminate while between. Those whose dragons cannot between, such as weyrlings or injured dragons, must muck out their dragon's couch or weyr. The genitalia are under a pouchlike flap where the tail joins the body and are only exposed during mating.
Mating
A few days before rising, a gold or green and her rider may have a period of proddiness. The signs vary from pair to pair - can include irritability, moodiness, or being overly affectionate. The dragon's color will deepen and brighten a day before rising, although greens can rise with little or no warning due to something such as Threadscore throwing their cycle off. Greens rise to mate more often than the fertile golds, who usually rise to blood from sleep. Golds are very possessive of their possible mates and will fight to the death if another gold rises at the same time. Greens do not share this possessiveness, and the only side effective of multiple green risings in a Weyr is no more than an increased number of disappointed males.
Wing
The wing is 1 and 2/3 the dragon's length. Half of the wing has bones shaped similarly to an arm from shoulder to finger joint, including an elbow. Dragons have emmense strength in their shoulders and upper wing to provide lift power. The elbow is slightly flexed and the leading edge is a membrane that goes from shoulder to finger joint. The first two bones run almost together, to form the outer spar portion of the lub. The remaining two wing bones fan out from the finger joint. The inner bone almost perpendicular from the spar bone and ends midway between the body and the forestay finger tip. From the dorsal spire to this inner bone is the primary mainsail, the largest of the sails, which supports most of the body weight. The secondary mainsail runs from the inner bone to the midbone, and the spar mainsail runs from the midbone to the sparbone(s). The smaller two mainsails provide some support for body weight, but their primary purpose is to provide manueverability. The outermost, or forestay, tip functions almost independantly, and is called the 'fingersail'. Cartilage provides additional support from arm and finger joint to the leech or trailing edge. The wing membranes are almost translucent in fire lizards, and are nearly so in dragons. The membranes are thicker over bones and at mast attachments, and are much stronger than they appear. A dragon can still fly with 1/3 of the sails damaged. As the dragon grows older, the fingertip and elbow joints harden, lessening their manueverability.
See Also: Dragonhealing Craft
Referenced By: Dragonhealing