Evolution of True Dragons

Evolution of Classis Dracana - i.e. True Dragons.

Scared yet? XD

There's some story by the way.... evolution, if you will, of how I ended up having this, and how it all unfolded. Believe if you will now as you look at all those dragons, but during my much younger years, all the way back to high school, when I really drew a lot of dragons, they were all quite the same - just differently colored. Evidently, much has happened since.

The first dragon chart (first bunch of Chromatic Dragons) I started years ago, during one single-week sick leave from work. I've always wanted to describe all of them chromatic dragon species, from the time I first came up with those first 12 and still believed I'd only have those; but it was during that sick week that I decided to draw them and put them together in a chart. That's when I first began to really think about their different proportions and body build, different wing sizes and shapes in respect to their very different habitats and way of life. I'd had the idea of different body shapes already lurking, and I had done some sketches exploring that idea (they were still very rudimentary and still too similar, one of those still sits in DA for that matter), but when I worked on the first chart I began to think of it with their ecology in mind. Also, I thought of earthly animal references for quite a few of them, one way or another - e.g. dinosaurian muzzles for the older species, snake-like face and huge mole-like claws for yellow dragons, crocodilian features for black dragons, vaguely tiger-like body build for the red dragons. So they already came out quite different thanks to that alone. Later, in the second chromatic chart, these differences would become quite dramatic.

But between those two periods, I actually had another moment of "wait a minute" and another leap in my personal dragon-related evolution - namely, the faces. Some of you may remember that when I first showed the first chart they all had very similar faces. There was some variation already, mostly in proportions, but the shape was quite universal - and they never felt distinct enough to me. At some point I realized they all more or less had the face shape of my own species, just differently sized. Now I wanted to change that and make them more varied and unique. So one day I started sketching face shapes. I gathered a bunch of inspirational references, just dragons from all over the place, dragons from different fandoms even, dragons of very different styles with very different shapes and faces.... I never wanted to copy others' work, but I wanted ideas and inspiration. That's when they began to diversify more and more, I had ideas from other animals, dinosaurs, fantasy creatures.... and I started sketching and drawing, just going wild with all those ideas in mind.... and it was also so enjoyable that eventually I had quite a few. The ambitious project that initially scared me, had turned quite successful. So at the time when the second chromatic dragon chart emerged, I already had so many new faces. The rest was filling gaps, refining and actually working them into the charts, actually drawing all those dragons.... lots of work, I have to say. I am so happy with it now.

But the thing is.... once I had so many dragon faces, and also while designing them, I being a fantasy-biology nerd, began thinking of their phylogeny as well. I'd had some ideas about that beforehand, some species I knew were related more than others. In fact, my first evolution charts popped up many years ago, but they were far more vague and unsettled, and there were many species that I couldn't quite place and they kept moving around. But now, once I had so many faces, this actually helped me place those species and figure out where they should sit in the evolutionary tree. There was some back-and-forth with this too, quite a bit of research of the evolution patterns and timelines of animals existing in this world.... I must have learned a lot about the geological times involved as well in the process too - something I very much enjoy reading about anyway and the research expanded well beyond what I need for dragon evolution alone. Until finally.... this chart came to be. And I must say, I am really proud of all this work now.

About the chart - obviously I take the Earth's geological history as a mainframe, not just reference, I just use the same timeline. I am crazy, but designing a whole another geology is taking it a bit too far (for a biologist, that is). Some details are different of course - like the existence of a parallel lineage of six-limbed vertebrates; or the fact the non-avian dinosaurs do not go extinct in my world, they exist throughout the Cenozoic and still live in some places nowadays. Other than that.... well, read the chart, explore. The overview of evolutionary history is there, I won't copy the text in the description, it's long enough. Follow the numbers to get it chronologically, of course. Oh yeah, something funny about that.... I used a huge O from a fancy calligraphic font for the circles XD

All these Dragon Species belong to me.
Do not use without my explicit permission.

All Dragon species comparison charts:
Chromatic Dragon Species - Comparison chart pt. 1
Chromatic Dragon Species - Comparison chart pt. 2
Metallic Dragon Species - Comparison Chart
Crystal Dragon Species - Comparison Chart

Dragon Species by size - Comparison Chart


Biology of Ætheris