Question of the Day, July 21, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, July 21, 2010



The latest issue of Popular Science asked an interesting question: If evolution had taken a different turn, could we have had dragons, unicorns and griffins, or are these just creations of a fanciful imagination? What do you think?

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[Tinneh]

Yeah, I think it could happen, science is magical like that.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I dont' think so... Maybe centaurs and massive lizards and horses with horns, but the very definition that we have given these animals is that they are magical beings, with still doesn't work too well with science.

Perhaps our cognitive abilities would be increased so that Telekinysis would be possible, but the magical definition of these creatures wouldn't satisfy our stereotypes even if we did have massive lizards and horned horses

 

[krseyffert]

Stranger things have happened

 

[monkey_man]

ofcourse! DNA is a strange thing!. chimpansees and humans only differ about 3 % of DNA, so..
if a horse would be somewhat differrent, it could be a unicorn.

 

[LongAndShort]

I'm expecting us to land on a distant planet one day to discover dragons and unicorns. And of course we'll have to enslave them for our own nefarious purposes. I'm thinking pay-per-view unicorn fights.

Awesome.

 

[Keepitclean]

Had the selective pressures been right then yes. But if the selective pressures had been right there could have been green blolb monters the size of an elephant that can play mp3s.

So yes, but it doesn't matter.

 

[Proteus214]

Technically there were dragons (dinosaurs, fire breathing is just silly) and the others aren't that far off from actual animals.

 

[The Cheezy One]

youre implying that evolution is a definite cause of creation. as a christian i oppose the thought of ah, im just jacking with you. i am a christian, but i believe in evolution
yeah probably. i mean, gas in dragons being ejected through the mouth is plausible, the ignition bit would be hard though
bones protruding out the head for unicorns, and griffins are basically birds with claw arms and horse legs, again possible

 

[felixader]

Technically there were dragons (dinosaurs, fire breathing is just silly) and the others aren't that far off from actual animals.

Well there ARE Lizards who spit hot chemicals.

 

[leonhart126]

The answer is obviously yes due to natural selection

A mutant horse with a horn is more likely to survive and breed due to a greater abilty to protect itself and the abilit to make shish kebabs

A mutant lizard which can breath fire will obviously survive over normal lizards as it can cook meat avoiding disease and it can breath god damn fire!

And as for griffins, they are probly the least likely just due to their sheer size compared to similar animals they would have evolved from they would not have survived.

 

[HT_Black]

Yeah, if God felt like playing with his box of "Lil' divinity's my first Do-it-yourself LEGO genetics kit" one day. And evolution was feeling wacky. And the conditions on the planet were so freakishly twisted that they necissitated said evolutions.

 

[DSK-]

Well, if the platypus was created by evolution I can't see why those mythological creatures can't have been

 

[DazZ.]

Of course it could, the question just asks "if evolution went differently", it obviously could because it doesn't specify how it was different.

 

[Proteus214]

Technically there were dragons (dinosaurs, fire breathing is just silly) and the others aren't that far off from actual animals.

Well there ARE Lizards who spit hot chemicals.

Also true, so it's really not that far off.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Yeah, with one caveat. The standard image of dragons and griffins has them as large winged creatures capable of flight. There's nothing wrong with them having wings. However, for them to actually fly their wings would have to have ridiculous size (on Earth at least). We're talking hundreds of meters, it's just not going to happen.

If the dragon was the size of an iguana and the griffin the size of a fox then flight would be feasible.

 

[Impluse_101]

Everything is possible.

 

[JohnSmith]

Unicorns sure, the rest no. There are no real evolutionary benefits to the other two biological make-ups.