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I've been drafting a fantasy world with dragons, obviously becuase it's a fantasy world. I was thinking about the science behind flying animals and how reptiles and birds are sort of related, yadda yadda. But I was thinking about how a dragon might be fore resistant and/or can breath fire. Surely its insides would burn up. Not to mention, if they're reptiles they're exothermic, so being high in the mountains would make them cold. But then I thought, maybe if they had fire/heat inside them as a defense mechanism and as means to have internal body temperature, that could sort of explain that. But fire is... hot? So that would kill it, unless maybe it had some sort of fire resistant cells/tissue. I thought maybe a metallic plating could make sense for their internals/scales?

But I'm no biologist, so I'm not sure any of that makes any sense or is plausible.

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    $\begingroup$ Hello @TheSunSetRat, welcome to Worldbuilding. The easy answer is no. The weight of iron - even iron-impregnated skin/scales - combined with its rigidity would make this a very difficult solution. Worse, there isn't a biological way to get that much iron into much of anything. I recommend you search our site for dragons. We've had a lot of questions, including questions about how to achieve fire, how to create strong scales, how to design the dragon, etc. You can learn more about us by taking our tour and reading help center and help center. Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Jul 6 at 2:14
  • $\begingroup$ Exotherm is not a term that applies to animals in that sense. Reptiles are poikilothermic ectotherms, meaning they rely on external heat sources, and that their body temperature can vary greatly. $\endgroup$
    – M S
    Jul 6 at 7:17
  • $\begingroup$ This link on the biology se might be helpful $\endgroup$
    – M S
    Jul 6 at 7:19
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Worldbuilding! We already have many MANY questions about how dragons can breath fire.See here $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Jul 6 at 12:22

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I mean, the classic answer to this question is that the Dragon has 2 glands that produce different organic chemicals that when combined, combust.

This allows you to safely store both chemicals, then when they are squirted out, they combust far enough away from the Dragon to not hurt the dragon.

Iron Plates - I mean, it's fantasy - you could make it iron if you wanted, or Iron Like. Thick Chitin plates or scales can be extremely tough, whilst not being Iron.

However - I don't know of any animal that grows a metal hide to protect itself.

But again - if you've got Dragons, you could come up with some plausible explanation - maybe in order to make the chemicals that allow them to spit fire, they have to have a certain diet, which has a by-product of excess iron, that is excreted by their skin.

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In "Flight of Dragons" the dragons use hydrogen gas generated from stomach acid to float and they ignite it when it exits their mouth. https://youtu.be/j0j0Bjy6hFc beyond that I suppose there are other chemical reactions for fire I'd suggest localizing in the mouth rather than a great internal furnace.

Thermoregulation to get rid of excess heat is generally done by lots of blood vessels over a large area. Like rabbit ears or elephant ears. I suppose something like stegosaurus spikes could do it too but that's not really what dinosaurs used it for. And bat style wings could do it in a dragon as well. But mostly I'd say don't make dragons have an always on internal fire and then you won't have heat problems.

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Graphite is better. It can be a solid up to 4000K. Specific gravity 0.64, where iron is over ten times that at 7.5. It is carbon based, so it is compatible with organic life.

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