Let’s start our journey into fantastical science by talking a little bit about the study of taxonomy, and how it fits into the world of fantasy. If you remember anything from biology class, you probably remember a few things about classic taxonomy. You know, that upside-down pyramid of species that are more and more closely related. More specifically, it includes groups like kingdoms, orders and families before you finally get down to that one species.
If you remember a little more about biology class, you probably remember something about cladistics. That’s the more modern form of taxonomy that uses little trees to show how all kinds of species are related to each other and how close or far apart those “cousins” are.
Now, in case that family tree or “cladogram” as it’s called is unfamiliar to anyone, I’ll break it down. It’s basically a study on how similar living things are based on how recently in the evolutionary chain they “split” from one another.
So if you look at our example, the lion and leopard are super related because they only split apart from a common ancestor very recently (at least, as far as evolution is concerned). But the lion and tiger are more distant cousins because they split apart a long time ago from an ancestor further back. Kind of like your siblings vs. your cousins vs. the kids of your parents’ cousins: you’re all related, just a little bit less the further out you go.
And that works for all animals! All of these cats have at least some similarity to each other, and a little less similarity with other cats, and a little less again with other carnivores. Basically, species are pretty much guaranteed to have at least some kind of familiarity with other species. Even the weird ones whose closest relatives all died out, like the tuatara.
Tuataras are cool little lizard-like reptiles that aren’t actually lizards… which kind of proves my point.
But the thing about fantasy creatures is, evolution didn’t make them up. We did. And that’s where things can get kind of hazy if you aren’t careful.
Like, unicorns? Easy enough, if you’re sticking with “white equine that evolved some kind of horn.” But when you get into other traits, like cloven hooves and lionlike tails, you might start running into problems. Because there aren’t any equines with cloven hooves. And the horn thing is kind of debatable too, for that matter.
And then we have dragons.
The thing about the dragon is, it’s kind of a catch-all term for “big cool-looking reptilian monster.” If you just take something like the Welsh dragon up above and plonk it into your world, it won’t really be related to anything. No, not even lizards. The legs are too bird- or mammal-like, it has outer ears, and that’s not even getting into the whole six limbs thing. Even if you have multiple species of dragon, that alone is just a bunch of small branches that don’t connect to the trunk.
But if you look at real-life reptiles, that’s where you can start to get creative. Where could dragons fit in a “fantasy” taxonomy? What about a crocodilian dragon, that lives near swamps and rivers and ambushes unwary travelers for their shiny, shiny gold? Or a serpentine dragon, whose family split off from true snakes eons ago and still has limbs to go with its flammable venom and long, coiling body?
My personal favorite is the monitor lizard. Have you seen Komodo dragons, you guys? They have that name for a reason.
Of course, you can go wild and make a whole group of related critters to tie back into the family tree. But that’s a whole other bucket of worms. Or would it be wyrms?
Point is, there are a lot of ways to mix up your fantasy beasties just by looking at their real-life counterparts for inspiration. And when that also nestles them right into your world’s ecology, it’s a win-win! So what does your fantasy taxonomy include? Draconic dinosaurs? Goat-like unicorns? (You didn’t think I forgot about the unicorns, did you?) Let me know in the comments!