Editing Dragon (section)

===Origins & Inspiration===

The fact that many [[Human]] cultures the world and time over have some from of a dragon or dragon-equivalent suggests that the concept or the inspiration for them is millennia old, possibly dating to before there even was a civilization. That being said and as the sections below demonstrate - the concept of a "dragon" evolved from a relatively humble origin to later become the majestic beast we all know and love.

There are many theories on how the concept of dragons came about, the most common one being that we inherited a fear of large predators and snakes, the latter of which is especially significant since the earliest myths featuring dragons have the hero or gods battling serpentine beings of great strength. This would also explain how the Asian, Mesoamerican, early European and Egyptian dragons are serpentine in appearance.

Another theory suggests that humans may have seen dinosaur bones (especially skulls) and confused them for being the remnants of dragons. This may have likely happened early in humanity's developmental history though with the advent of civilization and recorded history & mythology may have served to refine the beasties further.

Lastly, though a bit of a stretch, there is the Stoned Ape Theory which suggests that a crucial leap to consciousness that occurred around 70.000-30.000 BC (Cognitive Revolution) was due to our ancestors getting high and the resulting hallucinations kickstarted our mind development. During these seances it is possible that the subconscious fear of snakes may have lead to hallucinations that eventually resulted in dragons.