--- title: Shrek's dragon: real «dragons» and lizards, and why nothing breathes fire — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Shrek's dragon: real «dragons» and lizards, and why nothing breathes fire», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In Shrek, a dragon as big as a castle breathes great flames, flies and guards a castle full of t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Shrek's dragon: real «dragons» and liz… # Shrek's dragon: real «dragons» and lizards, and why nothing breathes fire Lesson 146 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/0/) — In Shrek, a dragon as big as a castle breathes great flames, flies and guards a castle full of treasure. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/1/) — No real animal does any of that. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/2/) — Breathing fire would need a store of fuel and a spark, and the animal's own soft, wet mouth would burn; the bombardier beetle comes closest, firing a nearly boiling chemical spray from a tough chamber. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/3/) — Flying gets harder the heavier you are, because wings and muscles must grow even faster than the body; the biggest fliers ever, pterosaurs with 10-metre wings, were light with hollow bones, so a castle-sized dragon could never take off. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/5/) — No real animal breathes fire; the bombardier beetle sprays a nearly boiling chemical mix from a tough chamber at attackers. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/6/) — The Komodo dragon is the biggest lizard, up to about 3 metres long and around 70 kilograms, and lives on a few Indonesian islands with no big cats or wolves. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/7/) — Komodo dragons have venom glands in their jaws; the venom stops blood clotting and weakens prey. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/8/) — A Komodo dragon smells with its forked tongue, which carries scent to an organ in the roof of its mouth, its two tips telling left from right, and can find a dead animal kilometres away. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/9/) — A Komodo dragon can eat up to about 80 percent of its own weight in one meal and then wait weeks. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/10/) — Female Komodo dragons in British zoos laid eggs that hatched with no father, a rare virgin birth called parthenogenesis. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/12/) — The Australian frilled lizard opens a huge neck frill and hisses to startle predators, and if that fails it runs off on its back legs. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/13/) — Many lizards drop their tails when grabbed: the tail breaks at weak points and muscles close the blood vessels, so little blood is lost; the tail wriggles to keep the predator busy, and the new tail grows with a rod of cartilage instead of bone. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/14/) — The largest fliers ever, pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus, had wings about 10 metres across but were light, with hollow bones. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/15/) — No animal collects gold; bowerbirds decorate their display areas with blue or shiny objects, and the idea that magpies steal shiny things is mostly a myth, as tests found magpies are wary of shiny objects. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/16/) — Bearded dragons, like all reptiles, warm up on sun or warm rock before they can move fast, and wave one arm slowly to show they give in. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/17/) — Chinese water dragons live beside rivers, jump into water when scared and can stay under for around 25 minutes. - ← previous: [Shrek's Donkey: real donkeys and mules](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/145-shrek-s-donkey-real-donkeys-and-mules/) - next →: [Spider-Man: real spider silk and webs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/147-spider-man-real-spider-silk-and-webs/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)