An Instinct for Dragons is a book by University of Central Florida anthropologist David E. Jones, which seeks to explain the alleged universality of dragon images in the folklore of human societies. In the introduction, Jones conducts a survey of dragon myths from cultures around the world and argues that certain aspects of dragons or dragon-like mythical creatures are found very widely. He claims that even the Inuit have a reptilian dragon-like monster, even though (living in a frigid environment unsuited for cold-blooded animals) they have never seen an actual reptile. UCF redirects here. ... See Anthropology. ... For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Inuit (disambiguation). ... Reptilia redirects here. ...

Jones then argues against the common hypothesis that dragon myths might be motivated by primitive discoveries of dinosaur fossils (he argues that there are widespread traits of dragons in folklore which are not observable from fossils), and claims that the common traits of dragons seem to be an amalgam of the principal predators of our ancestral hominids, which he names as the raptors, great cats (especially leopards) and pythons. Look up Hypothesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Thyreophora Ornithopoda Marginocephalia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. ... For other uses, see Fossil (disambiguation). ... A hominid is any member of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), including the extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. ... Orders Accipitriformes     Cathartidae     Pandionidae     Accipitridae     Sagittariidae Falconiformes     Falconidae A bird of prey or raptor is a bird that hunts its food, especially one that preys on mammals or other birds. ... For other uses, see Leopard (disambiguation). ... Synonyms Pythonoidea - Fitzinger, 1826 Pythonoidei - Eichwald, 1831 Holodonta - Müller, 1832 Pythonina - Bonaparte, 1840 Pythophes - Fitzinger, 1843 Pythoniens - A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844 Holodontes - A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844 Pythonides - A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844 Pythones - Cope, 1861 Pythonidae - Cope, 1864 Peropodes - Meyer, 1874...

The hypothesis to which Jones conforms is that over millions of years of evolution, members of a species will evolve an instinctive fear of their predators, and he proposes ways in which these fearful images may be merged in artistic or cultural expression to create the dragon image and, perhaps, other kinds of hybrid monster. This article is about evolution in biology. ... For other uses, see Instinct (disambiguation). ... This snapping turtle is trying to make a meal of a Canada goose, but the goose is too wary. ...

Finally he suggests sociological reasons for why such images may be perceived differently at different stages of a culture to try to explain Chinese dragons are considered basically good and representative of government, but the great majority (although not all) European dragons are evil and often represent chaos. Japanese name Hiragana: KyÅ«jitai: Shinjitai: Korean name Hangul: Hanja: Thai name Thai: Vietnamese name Quốc ngữ: Hán tá»±: The Chinese dragon is a Chinese mythical creature, depicted as a long, scaled, snake-like creature with four claws. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Dragon. ...

Jones' theory was opposed in an article by Paul Jordan-Smith in the Spring 2002 issue of Western Folklore and by other authors. Jordan-Smith criticized the lack of evidence given to prove why dragon myths could not have been passed from culture to culture. He also notes that it cannot be demonstrated that the fears of ancestral hominids are coded into the human brain.

References

• David E. Jones, An Instinct for Dragons (Routledge, 2002) — ISBN 0-415-93729-9
• Paul Jordan-Smith, Review: An Instinct for Dragons. Western Folklore, Spring 2002