The monster in George R.R. Martin ’s Game of Thrones are as if by magic badass . But are dragons , direwolves , and lounge lizard - lions scientifically plausible on some horizontal surface ? Today we ’re going to endeavor to answer that query — with the help of some expert biologist .
We ’ll research the hypothetical anatomy , ecology , and demeanor of the iconic fantasy creatures of Westeros and Essos , and seek to draw stopping point about whether any of these beasts could exist in our slow , non - magical world .
Dragons
dragon — massive , flying , carnivorous reptilian with no innate marauder — are arguably the most iconic fantasy beasts of the Game of Thrones series . They possess an amazing and dire top executive , the power to set waste to army and cities likewise with their fiery breathing space .
1000 of years before the events of the Game of Thrones series , dragons of were unwrap lairing in theFourteen Flames , a large volcanic chain that extends across the Valyrian peninsula . It was the sheep - herd folks of Valyria who first learned to tame dragons , finally using the beasts to forge a vast empire across the continent of Essos .
Centuries later , anapocalyptic volcanic eruptionkilled most of the world ’s Dragon and finish the Valyrian empire . The mintage was retrieve to be extinct until Danaerys Targaryen ’s dragons concoct at the root of the series .
When dragons vanish from the worldly concern , cognition of their biota was lost , so we ’ll have to fill in the gap with relative anatomy and a healthy dosage of wild speculation .
The Draco of Game of Thrones have long , sinuous bodies with snake in the grass - like tails , short back leg , and declamatory front wings similar to those of a squash racket . They ’re got a wooden-headed bed of scaly black armour , which probably offers shelter against the occasional molten magma rain shower .
It ’s unreadable just how adult the dragons of ancient times catch . But like many reptiles , dragons never discontinue growing , and they lived up of two centuries . If the truck - sized skull Arya light upon in the donjon of King ’s Landing is any index , the dragon of ancient Valyria were larger than any fauna that ever took to the sky on Earth .
Which fetch us to the prominent science doubt : could a wight this orotund actually become airborne ? To find out , I talk with fossilist Mark Witton , an expert on the largest animals that ever vaporize — flying reptile .
Pterosaurs were bird - like , carnivorous reptiles that live on from the late Triassic through the Cretaceous . The large known flying reptile , theazhdarchids , die out out 66 million eld ago , in the same mass defunctness event that killed the dinosaurs . Based on the fogey book , azhdarchids achieved wingspans of over 30 foot and weigh upwards of 500 pounds .
How did such a magnanimous animal get itself off the ground ? First and foremost , pterosaurs require to be as weak as physically possible . Their bones were empty , and in some cases extremely thin . For extra perkiness , pterosaurs had large melodic line sacs diffuse around their muscles and throughout their body .
“ These adaptation were decisive , ” Witton said . “ While a giraffe may consider a short ton or two , a pterosaur of the same size would only weigh as much as a large pig . For dragons to be flight - worthy , they ’d almost for certain have to have hollow bone , as well . ”
The meat that a pterosaur did put on was cautiously distributed . “The biggest pterosaur were fundamentally a fairly small physical structure wrapped in loads of concentrated muscularity , ” Witton said . “ As you move away from the animal ’s core , their tree branch become spindly very quickly . ”
ferment out , that ’s not too different from the body design we see in the Game of Thrones dragons . “ What ’s really cool about the dragon in Game of Thrones is they ’ve got these large , deep chests , and as you move off from the eubstance , the wings and arms get proportionally quite slender , ” Witton read . “ That ’s actually pretty precise . If I were designing a dragon for flight of steps , I ’d go for a similar eubstance design . ”
The heavy affair weighing Daenerys ’s dragons down is their bum . “ We know that other pterosaurs had fairly long full dress , ” say Witton . “ But they were very slender and flagellated . When I attend at that Draco tail assembly , that bet more like something a croc would possess , which is fine for ground effort , but probably a bit too monolithic for flight . ”
To get a hefty tail off the primer coat , a dragon would require to spend valued push . Which take us to another major point of circumstance : to sustain its participating , rampage lifestyle , a dragon is go to need a lot of calories .
Fortunately , we know that dragon are n’t finicky eater , and that remove an intact village is about as intriguing as micro-cook a live pouch . But how many Calorie would a dragon have to eat to pass all twenty-four hours plundering from the air ?
I did a back - of - the - gasbag calculation to find out . According tofreedieting.com , a six fundament tall , 200 pound man who work out a physical labor job postulate to consume 3600 small calorie a sidereal day to maintain his weight . Let ’s just assume this man ’s lifestyle and physiology are comparable to that of a flying lizard ’s . In that case a one ton , adolescent dragon would call for to consume 36,000 calories a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
harmonise toCalorie King , a pound of beef flank contain approximately 880 Calorie . So , our mid - sized dragon would require to eat 41 pounds of steak a daytime to maintain its weight . Which does n’t really sound too crazy . If we ’re conservative and twofold that amount , a single human repast could still feast a dragon for several days .
But would a Draco ’s post - lunch solid food - baby bog it down for the rest of the good afternoon ? perhaps . “ Some scavenging birds gorge themselves and struggle to take off afterwards , ” Witton said . “ Pterosaurs too might have gotten themselves into spot where they need to go that nutrient through before takeoff . ”
Still , Witton state , based on the mechanically skillful stress their pearl can plow , it ’s imaginable that 500 - Egyptian pound pterosaurs fly after eat up 80 - pound meals , albeit with difficulty . Which puts a dragon eat on a human and bear on on its merry way within the realm of physically possible .
And lest we bury , dragons have one ability that ’s give them a big leg up when it comes to energy : fire . “ You need to be quick bodied to fly , ” Witton said . “ If you ’re an insect , you power up in the sunlight , if you ’re a raspberry or a bat , you generate your own warmth and use a furred pelage to keep yourself insulated . We assume pterosaurs were similar to birds and mammals in this regard . ”
For non - magical beings , maintaining core high temperature signify burning kilogram calorie . But if we allow tartar this one otherworldly skill , the animals have a ego - fill again heat source at no additional cost . “ It would surely serve puzzle out the job of intellectual nourishment , ” Witton said . “ If there ’s a elbow room they can keep warm without sting extra calories , it ’s potential dragons could have proportionally lower caloric breathing in than a bird or a mammalian . ”
Who know — perhaps breathe fire frees up enough vigour to make that goodly tail accomplishable .
As massive carnivore with no born enemies , dragons are almost certainly the apex predators in their surround . Which might be the entire Game of Thrones world , if we again look to pterosaurs — whose fossils are find nearly everywhere on Earth — for comparability .
“ A gargantuan flying reptile could take off from England , pilot over the Eastern US , most of the way inland , and back to the UK in a single journeying , ” Witton told me . “ Now , that would be an extreme flight , and it would be very thin afterwards , but the fact is , we ’re talking creature that could insure yard of miles , at top speeds of closemouthed to a hundred naut mi per hr . ”
“ If you translate that to Game of Thrones dragons , you ’ve got to take on they could have hunt all over Westeros , ” he continued . “ The narrow sea is an afternoon trip , and as they get openhanded they ’re just going to be moving faster . ”
Many apex predators on Earth today also cover tremendous range . Take theSiberian Panthera tigris , whose hunting soil span hundred of mi , or the great white-hot shark , which can drown from South Africa to Australia and back in a year . uncommon as these hunters may be , they can have aprofound influence on their surround , by keeping little populations of carnivores and herbivores in deterrent .
As larger and more destructive apex predatory animal than anything on Earth , we can almost view dragon attacks as a natural cataclysm — one that hammers ecosystems when it hit , but happen so seldom that populations have time to convalesce between attacks . We ’ve get no way of know how different thing were when dragons ruled the skies of Westeros and Essos , but given their size , mountain chain , and downright might , it seems just to assume they were the dominant ecological violence the world over .
Direwolves
The Direwolf , sigil of House Stark , may be a more firm companion than a dragon , but it ’s an equally vicious killer . Direwolves once take a immense swath of the North as their home , before hunters drove them off . Today , they still wander the forests and tundra lands northwards of The Wall , and are on occasion spotted by men of the Night ’s Watch . Direwolves are social , hierarchical face pack hunters , but if embrace at a vernal age , they can become fiercely devoted to a human master .
Unlike tartar , direwolves seem to be instantly inspired by a once - inhabit creature . The dire Hugo Wolf , Canus dirus , was a top predator across most of North and South America during the Pleistocene , until it disappeared along with many of our major planet ’s megafauna some 12,000 yr ago . To find out how George R.R. Martin ’s direwolf compares to its Earthly counterpart , I spoke with Robert Dundas , a paleoecologist who has been studying the creatures for decade .
There were some striking conflict .
Direwolves in Game of Thrones are basically a jacked - up version of gray skirt chaser , with several key anatomical difference . They ’ve got larger heads , a leaner , more pronounced gun muzzle , longer wooden leg in proportion to their bodies , and large , razor knifelike tooth . An adult direwolf can get as magnanimous as a small sawhorse .
When I key the Westerosian direwolf to Dundas , he set forth to laugh . “ People have this prototype of dire wolves as being these massive creatures , ” he say . “ But in terms of overall body size of it and balance , they ’re actually pretty similar to a forest wolf or grizzly Hugo Wolf . ”
The central anatomic difference , Dundas said , has to do with bulk rather than size . “ When you reconstruct the awful wolf ’s musculature based on its bone structure , you end up with a much burly wolf , ” he say . What ’s more , dire wolves of the Pleistocene had slightly shorter arm than grey savage , making their bodies less accommodate for high - speed chases .
But do n’t lease size of it fool you : the hunt skills of Pleistocene dire masher are legendary . In packs , these animals could harness some of the big prey around , let in elephantine North Americanground sloths , camels , horses , and perhaps even young mammoth . In South America , they wipe out an entirely unlike curing of large herbivores . Which brings us to another remainder between the Stark childrens ’ direwolves and the Pleistocene mixed bag : their habitat .
“ dreadful savage lived in a wide compass of environments , ” Dundas state . “ We see them in assailable grassland , shut forests , and from ocean level up to 8 thousand feet in elevation or more . ” The only spot dire woman chaser did n’t be ? The far north . The northmost fossil evidence for fearsome wildcat hails from southerly Alberta , or so coincide with the edge of theLaurentide ice sheet .
“ There is no evidence that dire Wolf existed in arctic environment , ” Dundas said . “We’re not really certain what to make of this northerly range limitation , given that they ’re pretty well - adapted to live in just about any sort of surroundings . ”
On the other bridge player , we do have records of gray Friedrich August Wolf in Alaska during the Pleistocene . And at the northern extent of their range , gray wolves can get reasonably darn big . “ It ’s common for body size to increase when you get into very dusty environments , ” Dundas said . “ We ’ve seen hoary wolves in Alaska and Siberia that are larger than any dire wolf skeletons . ”
As for whether a dire Friedrich August Wolf could have been moderate ? “ We ’ve got no grounds for tameness , ” Dundas said . “ We know that dread wolves co - occurred with man , so it ’s a fascinating question what it would have been alike to have a running game - in with one . ”
To sum up , Westerosian direwolves voice a plenty more like prominent , Siberian or Alaskan gray wolves than their Pleistocene namesake . While the determination hurtle white-haired wolves on blind was clear behave of requisite , it serendipitously makes the most scientific sensation .
Manticores
In Game of Thrones , death can come in all shapes and sizes . One of my favorite underrated fantasy puppet is the manticore , a Scorpio - like arthropod that lives on distant tropic islands in the Jade Sea , K of miles east of Westeros . mantiger are prized for their malice , a few drops of which can stop a grown human beings ’s heart . Before Ser Gregor Clegane crushes Oberyn Martell ’s straits in Season 4 , Martell manages to stab him with a spite - coated shaft , leaving the knight on the brink of destruction .
Long before manticores were jimmy by bravo and alchemists , they lived happily in far-off jungles , junket on smaller target and growing as big as lobsters . To learn what their lives are like , I spoke to Lorenzo Prendini , a scorpion life scientist at the American Museum of Natural story in New York .
There are nearly 2,000 known species of scorpions , and they ’re establish all over the planet . But free-base on the manticore ’s sizing and habitat , there are only a few possible Earthly comparisons .
“ The close thing you ’re going to get in the material world is either the Saturnia pavonia scorpion in tropic West Africa , or the giant forest Scorpion in Southeast Asia and India , ” Prendini said .
The emperor moth Scorpio , Pandinus imperator , and the giant forest scorpions belonging to the genusHeterometrus , are among the largest predatory arthropods in the world , with adults average 8 to 9 inches in length . Unlike with most other arthropods , these scorpions are what biologists callK - selectedorganisms , meaning they ’ve choose few offspring and longer lives over lots and lots of babies . A brood of emperor Scorpio the Scorpion may include 20 to 30 babies max , and female invest an unusual amount of time and energy caring for their unseasoned . It ask a foresightful fourth dimension for emperor and giant forest scorpions to reach sexual maturity date , and both type can live for more than thirty years .
Unlike desert Scorpio the Scorpion , tropic scorpions ca n’t support drouth at all . Their sonorous , wax - cake battle armor is built to retain moisture , and they stay cool by spending almost all of their sentence in underground burrows coming out only at Nox to snag prey .
“ These guys are super sensitive to their quarry , ” Prendini told me . “ They can discover the pernicious air current changes and the vibrations of insect half a meter aside . When they smell quarry they dash out of their tunnel lightning speed , grab the creature and pull it back as quick as they can . ”
In many respects , the life of manticores are plausibly similar to those of other tropical scorpions . But there ’s one very authoritative difference between mantichora and Earthly Scorpio the Scorpion : their choice of artillery .
“ On the whole , tropic scorpions do n’t really swear on spitefulness because they have such powerful claw , ” Prendini told me . “ Typically they ’ll take hold of their prey and just start rip it aside . Venom is costly , so they do n’t ware it . ”
When tropical scorpion do fall back to malice , it ’s ordinarily to paralyse a panicked creature before they dismember it , or as defence against other predators . ( Mongooses , owls , and sure lizards corrode tropical scorpions , which , Prendini take down , are a heavy source of protein . ) But the venom is n’t deadly .
“ It ’s pretty like to a bee or a wasp sting , ” Prendini state . “ It ’ll pain quite a snatch , but it wo n’t kill you . ”
manticora , on the other manus , do n’t possess fighting claws at all , so we ’ve got to assume venom is their primary weapon , both for defense and hunting . This makes the manticore a bit of an outlier among Scorpio : typically , as sizing addition , these creature switch venom for muscle .
Indeed , the most toxic Scorpion in the world are all rather puny . The Amerindic red scorpion , whose con can send an grownup human into cardiac arrest , tops out at about 3.5 inches length , while theDeathstalker , whose venom is a stiff neurolysin , rarely overstep 2 inches .
Still , toxicity does n’t needs concern to size — it ’s a occasion of the many selective pressures of an being ’s surroundings . Perhaps , for the manticore , venom is a more good marauder balk than big , meaty claws . Or perchance manticora are locked in an toxic evolutionary limb race with competing species .
We ca n’t know for sure without more information . But whatever circumstances have produced this toxic fighter , it ’s unmortgaged that the Jade Islands deserve a scientific expeditiousness .
Lizard Lions
They do n’t get as nearly as much attention as dragons , but there ’s another fearsomely large reptilian predator prowling the backwater of Westeros : the Lizard - Lion , sigil of House Reed . As far as we know , lizard - lions are found only in the bog and swamp of the Neck , a region that divides the North from the balance of the Seven Kingdoms .
Lizard - Leo are crocodilian animals , and from the thin descriptions happen in the record book , they behave much like their real - world counterparts , lying in wait to ambush quarry like floating logarithm . It ’s said that lizard - Lion can grow to the size of actual Leo the Lion and will viciously attacking unwary men who wind through the fenland .
Here ’s one of the few descriptions of lounge lizard - lions , from A Song of Ice and flame :
Sansa thrill . They had been twelve days cross the Neck , growl down a crooked causeway through an sempiternal black peat bog , and she hate every moment of it . The line had been damp and clammy….dense thicket of one-half drowned Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree pressed tight around them , arm dripping with the curtains of pallid fungus . immense flowers bloomed in the mud and float on pools of stagnant water , but if you were stupid enough to allow the causeway and surcharge them , there were quicksand waiting to soak up you down , and ophidian watching from the trees , and lizard - lions floating half submerge beneath the water , like sinister logs with middle and teeth .
Based on description in the books , lounge lizard - Lion probably come down within the parliamentary law Crocodilia , the taxonomic group comprising crocs , alligators and caiman . On Earth , these magnanimous , predatory reptiles are sole animate being , unremarkably sedentary but up to of swimming rapidly and even galloping over land for short bursts to catch prey .
Their northern distribution run me to suspect lizard - lions are the Westerosian alligators . There are two species of alligators alive today on Earth : the American alligator , which can weigh up to 1,000 pound , and the Chinese alligator , a smaller , critically endangered metal money restricted to the Yangtze river in China .
Both coinage are more inhuman - large-minded than crocodile , which inhabit tropic part of South America , West Africa , Asia and Australia . Indeed , in The World of Ice and Fire , George R.R. Martin ’s comprehensive account of the Seven Kingdoms , we learn that there are crocodile in Sothoryos , the southernmost continent in the known world .
As for their famous aggression in the serial publication , it ’s dependable that crocs and alligator do lash out humans . But not often .
“ A croc or gator might assail you if you come to the urine edge and in effect act like their prey does , but you do n’t seem them going around hunt down masses , ” said Emma Schachner , a vertebrate physiologist and gator expert at Louisiana State University . “ Usually , they ’re pretty blue winder . ”
And if raised in captivity , crocs can be downright tame . Who have it away , peradventure some dauntless men and char of the North tried to palaver the beast into struggle once upon a time , or gimp a ride through the swamps of the Neck on their scaly backs . Then again , if you fall off a lounge lizard - lion ’s back and got trapped in the Neck ’s treacherous quicksand , it was probably plot over .
Krakens
Krakens are elephantine ocean monsters that skulk deep ocean basins in the world of Game of Thrones . Like lounge lizard - lion , there ’s light information to be found on these beasts in either the books or the idiot box serial . But we can be fairly sure they ’re cephalopods :
“ Kraken : strong , as long as they ’re in the sea . When you take them out of the water , no castanets . They break down under their proud weightiness , and slump into a heap of nothing . You ’d think they ’d know that . ”
-Ramsay Snow , A Song of Ice and Fire
The most famous monolithic cephalopod on Earth — the gargantuan squid — was also the clobber of fable far before humans ever substantiate its existence . Indeed , description of a tentacled sea monster can be found in 13th century Icelandic saga and one-time Norse scientific works . Kraken - like creatures have been with us in folklore for hundred , but the first clear photograph of a giant calamary was n’t captured until 2002 .
The reason behemoth squids — and credibly , the krakens of Game of Thrones — are so problematic has to do with their habitat . gargantuan calamary are think to inhabit every sea on Earth , but only at depths below 300 meters . Like giant calamary , krakens believably know in everlasting dark , hunt Pisces and nautical invertebrates , and fearing nothing bring through the occasional notched giant encounter .
The one scientific emergence I have with Krakens is their hostility toward humans . Krakens are suppose to viciously attack ship , and it ’s been suggested that the scent of human profligate pull them up from the depths of the sea . If this were true , then krakens would either have to have a rattling sense of smell , or live much stuffy to the surface than we guess . yield that most cryptic sea creatures ca n’t survive depressurization , my money would be on the latter .
But again , these are unconfirmed rumors . If our own account is any indicator , it ’ll be many C before the multitude of Westeros and Essos can say for certain whether krakens are anything more than the stuff of seawater legend .
White Walkers
We ca n’t spill the beans about the fantastical creatures of Westeros without mentioning White Walkers , the ice - full-blood , humanoid race from the time of the First Men .
Also known as the Others , White Walkers first appeared approximately 8,000 year before the case of the series , descending from their arctic homelands during a brutal winter called the Long Night . They ’re described in the books as tall , gaunt , pale humanoids , with brilliantly gamey eyes . During their southern march , the White Walkers killed everything in their itinerary without mercy or reason , quicken human remains as Isle of Wight to join their icy army . Eventually , the multitude of Westeros rallied together against the monsters , force back them back northwards and erect The Wall to keep them there .
White Walkers possess superhuman strength , can freeze anything they rival , and are rumored to bring frigid weather in their backwash . But rather than just inane putting to death simple machine , they seem to be an intelligent , humanoid specie with a complex societal structure , oral communication , and endocarp - historic period technology . Could they , too , have a plaza in our globe ?
Sadly , I think the answer is no . Even if we allow White Walkers their magical power to spring up the deadened , and their immunity to everything butdragonglass , we ca n’t get around the fact that biochemistry as we know it does n’t ferment when you ’re frozen .
There are a few microorganisms that can subsist at subzero temperatures for long periods of fourth dimension , by essentially going into hibernation . But the idea of being metabolically combat-ready while stock-still is incompatible with life as we know it . Every single biochemical procedure , from building unexampled proteins to replicating DNA , is based on move molecule around in a swimming media .
blue guys , but I think they ’re just magical zombies .
After survey just a few of the fearsome beasts of Game of Thrones , it ’s hard to draw any overarching conclusions about the feasibleness of their fantastical lives . Direwolves and lizard - lions seem like plausible wight by Earthly standards , while dragons have some physiological issues , although if we concede them a magical warmth source , those might be master . Manticores live in a jungle of foreign repulsion . Krakens are as secret as the giant squid , and White Walkers have no basis in Earthly biology whatsoever .
Of course , Game of Thrones is fiction , and part of the fun is that our rules do n’t have to use . Even if none of these creature have a place in our humanity , at least they ’re all appropriately terrifying for the violent fantasy realm they inhabit .
This article was earlier publish on April 23rd , 2015
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