If dragons never existed, why do they appear in cultures and religions across the world?

I rebel against your template. It looks too much like a homework assignment :P But it's an interesting question, so I'll still discuss.

Dragons aren't unique in this... giants and faeries of various varieties are referenced in mythology almost everywhere. I'd guess a lot of this comes from mixes of translations over time, and basic concepts. Also, understand that "Dragon" doesn't mean the same thing between cultures (language barriers aside)... it's not necessarily the same mythological creature. It would be interesting to see in what areas different varieties of dragon come from, compared to the dangerous reptiles in the areas, for example.

Also, remember that dinosaur bones are not a modern phenomena; in fact they are quite the opposite, and are well distributed throughout the world. A thousand years ago, if you dug up the skull of a giant reptile, what would you think? A common inspiration can lead to similar interpretations. The Greeks in some cases attributed giant bones found to be the bones of heroes, of the heroic age (see Hesiod's Works and Days' description of the ages of man)... I'm not certain, but I'm not sure (excepting the hydra) whether dragons featured prominently in this culture, though it was a major one.
 
It is possible that 'dragons' are just the last of the dinosaurs roaming the earth before they were all killed off. You will not find a credible reference as there is no 'dragon' skeleton laying in a museum any where in the world. But there are dinosaur bones in museums around the world. It is a little like the woolly mammoth, lots of cave drawings, but no bones until recent years. All we had to go on was an elephant. The lockness monster is possibly another example of a dinosaur living out its last days, long since gone but the legend lives on. Then you have tales of knights and dragons which have evolved over the years. Look at witches - they were just herbalists, naturalists, early doctors and consider the reputation they ended up with. Who knows maybe there once was a dragon creature. There once was a saber tooth tiger, a Tasmainian tiger, a dodo bird, the list goes on.
 
Because like gods they supported why certain things happened. or the existed out of superstition of a 'forbbiden place' The ancient Greeks for example believed in the griffen and believed that it lived in the mountains. because the were scared of this beast no one went there to see if it actually did live there or even exist. Now days paleantology digs have revealed that a series of dinosaur skeletons lay just below the serface and were revealed in an earthquake. the point is that some traveller could have seen these skeletons and told his mates back at his town about these ferocious beasts up there, he may of even supported his story with a skull of bone from one these 'beasts' over time the story grows. notice how not just dragons but myths even seem to have thier equivilents in seperate cultures... for example, both greek mythology and christianity tell of a flood that pretty much exterminates man kind and everything else, the remarkable thing is that they are nearly the same story the only difference is, is the pagan gods. Is this because it actually happened or is it because of some traveller telling bull shit stories. more likely the later. so dragons appear in many cultures because i think we can conclude of travellers stories passing from person to person, much in the same way modern rumours do and grow and warp as they are passed from person to person. there are other examples of this... in the middle east especially they still tell tales of askander or alexander the great. Over time these stories have become so warped that it hard to tell fact from fiction. Obviously there are a whole heap of theories but that one is the main one.
 
The book of Joel gives evidence of such creatures in the Nile River Valley.Ancient writings kinda stretched the truth about them.Check with pubs such as Nat Geographic.A smaller version yet lives on some island,though forgot name,and the millions of years crap by so called scientists is proven bullcrap.Creation scientists believe most perished during the flood of Noah.Read Joel carefully and visually with Joel's description of what he is looking at and tell Darwin to go back to school.
 
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