dragons...need info

readlorey · Apr 29, 2011

How much did the dragon in Dragonheart weigh? Does anyone know? I need some kind of reference and my dragon is bigger than a bull African elephant, but smaller than a blue whale. *sigh*

He's about the size of Draco, maybe a little bigger.

alleycat · Apr 29, 2011

The average male dragon weighs 48,000 pounds.

knight_tour · Apr 29, 2011

I'd say about 6000 stone, except I have no idea how much a stone weighs...

Sarpedon · Apr 29, 2011

That depends on the stone, I'd imagine.

alleycat · Apr 29, 2011

A stone is 1/8 of a hundredweight, which is 112 pounds.

Euan H. · Apr 29, 2011

readlorey said:
How much did the dragon in Dragonheart weigh? Does anyone know? I need some kind of reference and my dragon is bigger than a bull African elephant, but smaller than a blue whale. *sigh*

He's about the size of Draco, maybe a little bigger.

Your dragon weighs as much as you want it to weigh.

Want a lighter dragon? They have big wings, slender bodies, and have hollow bones, like birds.

Want a heavier dragon? They have scales formed of lead and bones of iron, and their teeth are sorcerously formed of unstable transuranic elements, giving rise to their radioactive breath.

Just make it up. It's a dragon.

TudorRose · Apr 29, 2011

I'd look for a dinosaur of the approximate size you're imagining and go with the weight of that.

They're all big reptilian things, right?

veinglory · Apr 29, 2011

...that often fly. Anything that flies drops a lot of weight by lacking duplicative organs and having hollow bones etc. Also it could just be... well, magical.

A.V. Hollingshead · Apr 29, 2011

A bull African elephant can weigh about 6 tons.
A blue whale can weigh about 150 tons.
Pick a number between 6 and 150. We have no way of weighing a CGI creation.

alleycat · Apr 29, 2011

TudorRose said:
They're all big reptilian things, right?

A little-known fact: they are actually in the chipmunk family.

j/k!

TudorRose · Apr 29, 2011

veinglory said:
...that often fly. Anything that flies drops a lot of weight by lacking duplicative organs and having hollow bones etc.

pterosaur

Should give as good an approximation as any

Also it could just be... well, magical.

In which case it could be entirely arbitrary

A little-known fact: they are actually in the chipmunk family.

j/k!

Dammit! You had me going there for a second :tongue

veinglory · Apr 29, 2011

TudorRose said:
pterosaur

I think the weight of a pterosaur would likewise be a guess given that most of its soft tissue anatomy is a bit speculative?

TudorRose · Apr 29, 2011

veinglory said:
I think the weight of a pterosaur would likewise be a guess given that most of its soft tissue anatomy is a bit speculative?

A lot of stuff about extinct animals is speculative, but if you look up a dino there will be a weight estimate.

We're talking about an approximate weight for a mythical being here and something that once lived that was vaguely similar in size and "reptilianness" might be as good a start as dividing the difference between an elephant and a whale. Work with me :tongue

Stoneghost · Apr 29, 2011

St. George's dragon wasn't even as tall as he was. Probably best to estimate how big the dragon is in reference to a mammal and go form there. If its a big dragon, which is more popular these days, probably need to look at the mass of whales.

readlorey · Apr 29, 2011

Euan H. said:
Just make it up. It's a dragon.

You mean that mine aren't real? oooo are they going to be mad at you. *snicker*

Hmmm...maybe I should ask him?

readlorey · Apr 29, 2011

alleycat said:
A little-known fact: they are actually in the chipmunk family.

j/k!

A fire breathing flying chipmunk? Coolness!

readlorey · Apr 29, 2011

TudorRose said:
We're talking about an approximate weight for a mythical being here and something that once lived that was vaguely similar in size and "reptilianness" might be as good a start as dividing the difference between an elephant and a whale. Work with me

lmao

AlexPiper · Apr 29, 2011

Peter Dickinson wrote a great book on this topic. If you really want to get into sorting out how dragons might work, his book is a really solid foundation to work from.

tarcanus · Apr 29, 2011

TudorRose said:
A lot of stuff about extinct animals is speculative, but if you look up a dino there will be a weight estimate.

We're talking about an approximate weight for a mythical being here and something that once lived that was vaguely similar in size and "reptilianness" might be as good a start as dividing the difference between an elephant and a whale. Work with me

True, but if we're talking pterosaur, the only one that I can think of that is comparable to a dragon is the Quetzalcoatlus. Anything else is small fry in comparison.

MattW · May 2, 2011

Is it a European or African ~~swallow~~ dragon?

DragonHeart · May 2, 2011

If I recall right (and I don't even remember where I found this out, it's been so long), Draco was something like 42 feet long. That would make him roughly the length of a T-Rex. As for weight, I would think he'd have been lighter, for flight. But I suppose that's part of their magic, that something so heavily built can fly at all.

JimmyB27 · May 4, 2011

MattW said:
Is it a European or African ~~swallow~~ dragon?

Laden or unladen?

Dommo · May 4, 2011

I think it would depend on if the dragon could fly or not.

If it couldn't fly, then it could conceivably be very large (especially if it's primarily a quadruped), and might top out at like 50-100 tons.

If it could fly (assuming your dragon doesn't really have any kind of magic helping him out), then maybe like 1 or 2 tons (that's like the size of a salt water crocodile), if you want to keep within the "realm of the real".

PeteDutcher · May 4, 2011

Euan H. said:
Your dragon weighs as much as you want it to weigh.

Want a lighter dragon? They have big wings, slender bodies, and have hollow bones, like birds.

Want a heavier dragon? They have scales formed of lead and bones of iron, and their teeth are sorcerously formed of unstable transuranic elements, giving rise to their radioactive breath.

Just make it up. It's a dragon.

Gotta say I agree with this.

Personally, I tend to write my dragons as in-between the two...light but with enough weight to have force behind their movements.

Jstwatchin · May 4, 2011

Once upon a time a lot of members used to have those dragons in their sigs which hatched from eggs. Why not find one of those and weigh it? Or have they all relocated?

Btw., if it has magic - why can't the dragon just teleport? That way it wouldn't need to shed extra weight to fly.

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