Forest Dragon

Forest dragons lived in thick woods and bamboo thickets. They retained the long, sinuous body form of their aquatic ancestors, a useful adaptation to moving rapidly through almost impenetrable jungle vegetation. They retained the ability to swim, and in hot weather, or to escape such dangers as forest fires, could still return to rivers.

These forest-living dragons had short wings, and were incapable of true flight. They were, however, capable of prodigious leaps: by curling their body in a plane to make a near-aerofoil shape (like some present-day "flying snakes"), producing extra lift from their small wings, and reducing their weight with hydrogen-filled flight bladders like those of the prehistoric dragon, these creatures were able to cover significant aerial distances.

Some descendants of these forest dragons expanded beyond the thicket to forage in open country, evolving into the magnificent Chinese dragon, D. sinensis, and a subpopulation of D. sinensis, isolated in the Japanese archipelago, the Japanese dragon, D. japonicus.