Here's the dilemma, we've got dragons and then we've got Pern dragons. See the difference? No? Well there are similarities but there are also differences.
According to the Collins English Dictionary a dragon is "a mythical monster usually represented as breathing fire and having a scaly reptilian body, wings, claws, and a long tail."
So basically the look of the 'dragon' has been described. For a visual look just scroll down the page where there are examples of dragons. So why don't we start with the looks of Pern dragons and dragons.
Sorry to break the news but there aren't any dragons (Pern or not) on planet Earth (at the time this was being written) that has been discovered. So I can't really give you live examples for you to examine. The closet dragon available is the Komodo dragon, so I think you'll agree with me that we'd just skip that example of a dragon. Rather dragons are now described by people's imaginations, so you'll need your imaginations too.
Let's look at the dragon's "scaly reptilian body, wings, claws, and a long tail" definition compared to Pern dragons. Most written descriptions by the author and pictures painted about Pern dragons have followed the dragon 'build' except for the "scales" part. Pernese dragons are refered to have hides instead of scales, which may explain the ease in which thread can score them.
When it comes to dragon colour, there is a difference. Dragon colour normally follows the imagination of the person but with Pern dragons, it's a different matter altogether. There are set colours for Pern dragons.
To summarise the 'look' section. The build of both types of dragons are similar with the only difference being that Pern dragons has set colours.
Fire breathing has long been recognised as a dragon characteristic so it isn't surprising that Pern dragons can breath fire, but with a catch, Pern dragons cannot breath fire naturally. As opposed to dragons, Pern dragons need to chew Phosphorus rock (also known as firestone) to produce their fire breathing. Gold Pern dragons are the only dragons that cannot breath fire. Firestone makes dragons infertile, hence golds (the dragon-bearing dragons) don't chew the firestone. This also explains why green (female) dragons are infertile as they chew firestone.
It's interesting to consider of WHERE you can find dragons. If you want a 'real' dragon on Earth then just pop over to the Indonesian Islands to have a look at a Komodo dragon, but then I don't think that that's what you want. The best way is to grab one of Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" books and read to your heart's content. Don't forget to let your imagination.
The World of Pern is copyrighted to Anne McCaffrey (c) l967.
'The Dragonriders of Pern' (R) is a registered trademark.
