Editing Age Of Dragons: Biology (section)

==Anatomy of a Dragon==
<br>An adult dragon is quadripedal, with long neck and tail, and a reptillian head. A dragon has two leathery wings, together equal in span to the full nose-tail length. These wings emerge near the shoulders from the dragon's back. On the ground, an adult dragon stands at around four and a half metres tall at the shoulder, with three metres of neck length, four of tail, and three of torso. 

Dragon skin is scaled, with larger overlapping armour plates over the chest, the back of the body, dorsal limb surfaces and upper head, and leathery skin with fine scales over the abdomen, ventral limb surfaces, face and wing edges. The wing membranes themselves are not scaled, but are smooth and lightly translucent. Dragons do not have hair, though some sport manes of fine leathery spines that might be mistaken from a distance as such.

Dragon forelimbs end in clawed hands, which have thumb-claws opposed to three jointed fore-claws, and one unjointed vestigial foreclaw. Fore-claws are typically around nine to twelve inches in length, slightly curved, and are sharp in point and to their inner curvature's edge. A dragon has a surprising amount of dexterity for their foreclaws - greater than that of a human hand when taken in size proportion, less limited in fine control by their size than one might expect. A dragon is capable of gentle and controlled touch, able (should he wish) to pick an ant off a leaf without harming it. 

Dragon rearlimbs are more muscular, and though less dextrous have a great deal more power. So long as they have their rear limbs on solid ground, dragons can easily launch themselves into full flight from a standing jump. Rear-talons are significantly longer than fore-claws, but have no opposed thumb so cannot manipulate so well. A dragon will typically bring in its rear talons to fight only when airborne, though of course it will readily use tooth and foreclaw whether airborne or grounded.

A dragon's teeth are clearly suited to a carnivorous diet, and for most breeds are found in a single serrated row each in the upper and lower jaw, with slightly larger canine fangs on both lower and upper jaw. A dragon's mucuous membranes (and indeed its viscera) are purple-red, as is its blood, regardless of scale colour. As the popular dragon-saying goes "scales may differ, but blood and breath are always the same".

Male dragons boast a pair of horns on their head. The appearance of these horns varies according to breed, but they are only found on males, and never on females. There are numerous other "tells" as to the gender of a dragon - males tend to have more elongated facial features and their central chest plates are single-file, whereas females have dual-file chest plates, more angled dorsal spines, and a generally less-shoulder heavy build, but stronger rear limb muscles. Both genders are similarly coloured and sized, with notable exceptions for only a couple of breeds. 

For dragons, of course, the difference in gender is intuitive and obvious, and there are many other physical features that might be considered feminine or masculine, though these vary with breed and culture. For both genders, depth and homogeneity of colour, and having strong features distinctive to one's own particular breeds is considered to be very attractive.
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