OOC: I have to be away from my PC for the weekend...please keep the posts to a minimum and no idle chit chat....I am trusting you all to be on your best behavior lest I close my class when I'm not here.
Thanks and I will be back on Monday to finish this lesson.

Jaren's hand practically flew over the parchment as he made as many notes as he could. He would have liked to see a real dragon in action, but he knew that due to their temperment and power it would be unlikely Professor/Headmaster Hendrik would allow one near Hogwarts. A pity.

Rosalita quickly wrote down everything the Professor said. After she was sure she had gotten everything down, she set her quill on the table and flexed her hand a few times to get the cramps out. She had always found Eastern Dragons fascinating and would love to see one up close, but knew that would be next to impossible. She'd have to settle for the realistic drawings on the parchments she supposed.

Rachel sits back and thinks. Magical creatures have always be an extremely interesting class. But out of all the creatures what would she want to see and learn about? Dragons are amazing creatures...but oh so common! Perhaps something different and rarely heard of? Something like a banshee? The seers of Ireland that sense death. A very interesting topic indeed. She quickly scribbles it down... she hopes the professor approves.

::angeli raises her hand in the air and says just a little fact about the muggles and the dragons::

professor, some muggles also think that a dragons heart sybolises eternal life and extreme power. in some of their "stories" dragons used to communicate with them and that if a dragon gives you their heart you will live forever with extreme power but consequences are that the dragon with a heart of pure will feel every scratch and injury the muggle will get. And some muggles in ancient history used to actualy "fight" dragons. and if they win, the prize is the hand in marriage of a fair princess! although thats fairly myth. i dont believe it at all..

*raise hand* "I want to add something to what you said, professor. Talking about Oriental Dragons, our previous dicussion too, but not only they are not portratied as evil, as otherwise Western dragons, but they are thought to be the servant of Gods -- Good Gods, that is." *ponders* "It's kind of paradogical."

Adam begins scribbling notes down on Dragons, though he knew already most of what the teacher said. He is awaiting the Professor's return.

Kay scribbles down the notes on Dragons, taking pains to sketch diagrams and label the parts.

*omg i'm loving this class*.......i wonder what's next! DarkMagicGurl raises her eyes and sighs....'What time is it anywayz? im getting hungry' she thinks to herself.

Kali listens and writes about the notes on the dragons, writing reminders here and there about certain aspects.

HM Hendrik sees that the students are all taking notes....he smiles and continues his lesson.

"The dragon is a homoiothermic reptile. In other words, he is a warm-blooded creature and his body temperature is controlled internally. This characteristic enables him to adapt to the different climates of his very extensive habitat and to maintain his activities both day and night throughout the year, as he is not dependent on the warmth from the sun like the other reptiles. The dragon, well the Western dragon, generally has wings, and his bones are hollow, for lightness. There are records of dragons who have lived for five hundred and even a thousand years, but there are no knows cases of dragons who have died from old age. On the other hand, they died from accidents, certain diseases, or as a result of the actions of their most relentless enemy: Mankind.

The dragon is the largest known flying creature. To maintain his enormous bulk in the air, his physical structure has had to be different from that of other reptiles.

His wing bones fit on to broad shoulders which support the powerful wing muscles; these require an extraordinary articulator system unknown in other species. The bones were tougher than reinforced concrete and much lighter.

It is important to note that the bones of a dragon are hollow like bird reducing their mass, scientifically: any creature with the physiology of a dragon can flight well and at great speed.

The dragons muscular system is one of the most fascinating... and one of the most complicate. We can evaluate the power in the bite of a dragon to put to an average of 2 ton per cm cube (in comparison it could easily gnaw steel).

As a matter of fact, dragons are very powerful. Their leg and "arm" can support great charge without much difficulty but this only applies on ground movement because in the air, a dragon could not maintain more than half of is weight for a long period of time.

If you have vision keen you probably notice something at the looking of the muscular picture and the skeleton picture... with the observation of the front and the rear paws, I come to the conclusion that dragons COULD NOT run, their muscles of the leg and arm were not developed for this matter. This doesn't means they could not walk, this only means that they could not reach great speed at ground. Take in consideration that dragons come in so much variety that it could be possible for a dragon to run but not those who have the similar structure of the diagrams I have given you."

Well, it makes sense *nods* by the look of it, if they can fly it would be better than running. The weakness of the muscles might be due to the unuse of the legs for that purpose. Plus the structure of the paws doesn't allow it, with the palm of it not being flat. In that sense, the dragon in question acts more like a bird... or a harpy. I guess some of them might actually jump to move faster....

*notices that she has been talking as if she was the professor, looks down blushing -- Oops!*

Quote:

The dragon is a homoiothermic reptile. In other words, he is a warm-blooded creature and his body temperature is controlled internally. This characteristic enables him to adapt to the different climates of his very extensive habitat and to maintain his activities both day and night throughout the year, as he is not dependent on the warmth from the sun like the other reptiles.

*raise hand* What about Water Dragons? Are they warm-blooded too?

"That is a very good question Nadia, and the answer is yes, much like many of the marine mammals, the dragons that live in marine environments are warm blooded.

Now, to continue....The dragon's body is completely covered with tough, shiny scales. The scales are pentagonal, and shaped like a teardrop, with two long sides and two shorter ones, and a very short fifth side attached to the skin. The dragon can make them stand on end whenever he likes to preen them. Remember, the dragon is a very clean creature and takes great care always to keep his skin and scales clean and immaculate.

In their normal position, the scales overlap very neatly and, thanks to a tiny cavity in the surface, they fit into each other to allow perfect freedom of movement.

If we study a scale closely, we observe the following characteristics: the innermost part is composed of a compact hairy formation firmly rooted in the epidermis. On the hair follicle there are some tiny glands which secrete a substance that adheres firmly to the skin.

This substance is rich in minerals, which determine the hardness and the color of the dragon's scales. The external surface has a horny, translucent texture, which gives the scales their habitual luster."

HM Hendrik then waves his wand at the blackboard....

Blackboard

Quote:

In their normal position, the scales overlap very neatly and, thanks to a tiny cavity in the surface, they fit into each other to allow perfect freedom of movement.

It's like the body hair of a human being, then.

*Nadia tries copying down the image in the blackboard. Well well, she thought, it seems the profesor has put a lot of effort in this class indeed!*

*Kirstie sat quietly and wrote out all the notes.*

Jaren duitifully continues making notes.

"Professor, to reflect back to my earlier question, since the dragon relies more on flight than motion on ground, what would be the inner bone structure? Has anyone made a study on it?"

Kay copies down the notes and drawing, carefully labeling the parts.

"Professor if the scale's roots are hair like. does that mean they can fall out easiay like human hair? And if it does when they get really old to they begin to bald?"

Birdy quickly scribbled down the scale illustration on the blackboard onto her notes and labled it carefully.

Reanna tried her best, with her limited drawing ability to copy down the diagram and label it properly. She studied her paper. Ughhh. It didn't look anything like the picture on the board. Oh well. she had been paying attention and writing notes down from the lecture on the sides of her diagram. Perhaps that would do.

Serena enjoyed the lesson on dragons and took copious notes. "I only hope some day I can see a real dragon!"

"Good question. The inner structure of the bone is very similar to that of a sponge in appearance, noting that I previously stated the bone itself is as strong as reinforced concrete. So try an imagine a bone with lots of small pockets or holes like swiss cheese, that is extremely strong and durable."

"Hahahaha! No, not at all! I think you would be hard pressed to find a 'bald' dragon. Now the scales can come out but are replaced by a new one. Something like the way a snake sheds it's skin only a dragon loses it's scales less often, say perhaps in battle or if it were to get some type of infection. Rare as that would be, dragons have been known to catch rare form of Draconigena. It is a form of the chicken pox virus effecting only new born dragons. It's not usually fatal, though if the infant dragon was weak to begin with, then Draconigena can be fatal to the infant.
Hmmm....I seem to have digressed....where was I..ah yes! The scales...uhmmm....NO, they don't fall out like hair."

HM Hendrik pauses for a moment before he continues with his class...

"It is impossible to list the enormous variety of hues that make up the dragon's brilliant coloring, but they can be divided into three broad color groupings:

Blues, ranging from dark blue to silver and mother-of-pearl.
Red, ranging from copper-red to dark red and reddish-black.
Greens, which include every imaginable shade of green and yellow and even dark brown, emerald green and burnished gold.

Although these three principal color groups are not usually mixed, a dragon's coloring is rarely uniform. In general, his scales are several hues from one of the main color categories, with a metallic luster which is hard to define. When the scales have a pale, opaque appearance, it is a sure sign of ill health, though that is also a rare occurance."

In his efforts to continue with his lesson, HM Hendrik forgets to show the class another view of the dragons scale.

"OH! Before I forget...." he waves his wand at the board once again, "Here is another view of the dragons scale, you can see by this figure that the translucent horny surface of the scale is where the color is reflected."

Blackboard

Raises Hand

"Is there a significance to the colour a dragon is? Is it just dependant on where they are from? Is it used as a camoflauge?"

"Another good question and one that I plan on covering in greater detail in another lesson, for now I'm just giving you all some general information.

Now before I finish this particular lesson, I would like to cover just a bit more...
Many can wonder in which class the dragons can be categorized. The dragons cannot be considerer as reptiles because they are active and they are warm blooded, and they cannot either be mammals because they lay eggs and they do not produce milk and even less be birds because they have scales and six members. However, the dragons have elements of each of these classes (reptiles, birds and mammals):

Birds: hollow bones, lay eggs
Reptiles: lay eggs, have scales
Mammal: four chamber heart, specialized teeth
Unknown: six members (2 pair of legs/arms, one pair or wing)

Thus, the dragons would be categorized in their own class... It would be a mistake to consider them in the current class because they do not answer the physical criteria requiered to belong to one or the other. Here is a well accepted classification scheme for dragons down to the Class level.
Kingdom:Animalia; Phylum:Chordata; Subphylum:Vertebrata; Class:Draconis"