In China, whether in ancient times or now, the "dragon" has always been regarded as a mascot by the Chinese people, which symbolizes auspiciousness, good luck and nobility, so the portrait of the dragon has appeared widely in many occasions in China, and people generally believe that seeing the dragon can bring good luck.
Now some people are very confused about the portrait of the dragon: because for thousands of years, the appearance of the dragon in the portrait has not changed, that is to say, the dragon in the ancient portrait is almost exactly the same as the dragon in the modern portrait, so he began to wonder whether there was really such an animal as a "dragon" on the earth.
With the improvement of people's cognition, the existence of dragons has been regarded as a myth and legend, but there are two most "dragon"-like species on the earth, in 2006, a national expedition team came to Kunlun Mountain, known as the "Mountain of Ten Thousand Ancestors", they accidentally found a dragon-like animal in the mountain, small, no eyes, translucent.
At first, its appearance really frightened the expedition team members, who thought it was a "baby dragon", but later it was determined that it was a known animal, called the cave salamander, which lived in a cave without sunlight for a long time and was rarely known.
The cave salamander is the most dragon-like creature in the world
Cave salamander (proteus anguinus) is an amphibian, because there is no visible eye, so also known as the blind salamander, strange shape, some people abroad call it "mermaid", long-term residence in the cave, almost no light, so the body surface has no pigment, showing translucent pink or gray.
From the appearance, it has a raised forehead, a flat mouth, and there are many tree-like gills like dragon whiskers behind the head, as well as limbs that can lift the body, it does look a bit like the dragon in the portrait, but the size is too small, and the length of the cave salamander is only 40 to 50 centimeters after adulthood, and the volume gap with the legendary dragon is too large.
Due to the long-term life in the cave without light, the eye of the cave salamander is severely degenerated, slowly covered by the skin, it looks like there are no eyes, in fact the eyeball is still there, and the light intensity can be felt because its skin is almost transparent. But what is puzzling is that when the salamander was first born, the eyes were exposed, but over time, the eyes retracted into the skin, only maintaining their sensitivity to light.
Cave salamander is still the world's most immobile animal, almost do not move every year, in addition to eating, the distance of movement is not more than 5 meters, some can even be motionless for 10 years, has maintained the minimum consumption, breaking the world animal static record, I believe that there is no animal in the world than lazier, even if it is called the world's first lazy sloth, can not be compared with it.
In addition to the cave salamander, there is another dragon-like creature on Earth, and in 2018, biologists discovered a strange creature in Florida, USA, with a head that looks a bit like the legendary "dragon". American ecologist Sean Graham said that the creature is actually a rare "salamander."
Rare "salamander" species look a lot like "dragons"
This rare aquatic salamander named sirenidae, from the photo, sirenidae has one of the most prominent features, the head has multiple trees, it looks like a dragon's horn and dragon's whiskers, so many people call sirenidae like a "dragon", in fact it is the exposed gills that sirenidae uses to breathe oxygen, just like ordinary fish gills.
Sirenidae's body looks like an eel because it is covered with a large number of black spots, like leopard spots, but its front has two small but well-developed forelimbs that can be used to catch food, balance the body and assist in movement, and the sirenidae adult body can reach 0.95 meters long, which is larger than the most dragon-like species.
Sirenidae's vitality can be said to be extremely strong, because it is both an omnivore and a carnivore, worms, small snail shrimp, filamentous algae and seaweed are its food, and food widely represents strong vitality.
The researchers also found that when the water conditions were not suitable, the sirenidae larvae would shrink their exposed gills into a stump, and when a drought occurred, sirenidae would burrow into the mud of a dry pond, wrap themselves in a mucus cocoon, go into hibernation, and can stay uneaten or drunk for months to survive the dry period, and when the rain comes, they will be rejuvenated.
Therefore, there are two creatures on the earth that look like dragons, the cave salamander and the sirenidae, which has to make people lament the diversity of species and super survivability on earth.
Seeing the super strong sirenidae, I can't help but think of a species called "African lungfish", which is considered to be the strongest fish in the world, it is said that after sealing itself in the mud by mucus, it entered a dormant state and reduced energy consumption, but over time, it was almost dried by the hot sun, but after a heavy rain arrived 4 years later, it was miraculously resurrected. Interesting scientific exploration content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration