Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Rigorous Science

How would dragons mate, according to science?

+0
−0

No, this is not not about courtship displays or dominance figths. (even thought I know that that is also part of mating) This is more of "What their genitalia would look like" and how they would "do it".

Think on your typical smaug-sized, extra armored, four-limbed, fire breathing dragon (let's ignore the fact the their fligth would be impossible.).

The females are slightly bigger than the males, and due to their spikey spiky backs, I think mounting (like birds) or intertweening (like most lizards) would result in castration. So... Nope.

Now here goes my especulation (feel free to prove me wrong, and give me a more "correct" anatomy. This is the point of this question...hehehe...)

Like reptiles and birds, dragons have cloacae, and due to the "agressive" mating behavior dragons seem to portray in fiction, I belive their genitals would be similar to those of ducks (corkscrew-shaped, the male's in one direction, the females in the opposite one.)

As I studied dinos for this matter, I found that Stegossaurus had sort of a away around this: The female would lie down on her side, but I don't think that would work too well on winged beings (the female would have to squish one of her wings for it to work, and expose the soft, vulnerable plating on it's belly), and besides, a dragon's tail is about 2 thirds of it's body, so it would just get on the away.

If dragons do it like the T-rex, then also, their tail would get in the way (and I belive that the female would not be able to raise her tail hight enougth, nor crouch properly (the wings would get on the way), and I doubt that a many tons male dragon will be able to main precise equilibrium wilhe standing on his hind legs to get it done.

In my opinion, the less-troublesome position would be if they faced away from each other (think moths and butterflies), but still, their long, heavy spiky tail seem to get on the way.

So, is there a much more accurate method of dragon sex than the ones above? (cuz, honestly, I think none of those would work ) How?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/174287. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »