<div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 2em;">Dragons Pern - Physiology</span><br/><br/>===========================================================================<br/><br/>Dragons are carnivorous, oviparous, warm-blooded creatures. Like all of Pern's native large fauna, they have six limbs - four feet and two wings. Their blood is copper-based and green in color. They have multifaceted eyes that change color depending on the dragon's mood. Unlike the dragons of Terran legend, they have smooth, soft skin rather than scales.<br/><br/>Kitti Ping designed the dragons to gradually increase in size with each generation. The dragons of the first Hatching were not much bigger than horses. The largest Pernese dragon on record, Ramoth, hatched twenty-five centuries later and (according to the novel All the Weyrs of Pern) was roughly three times the size of the largest first-generation dragons. (The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, written by Jody Lynn Nye with input from Anne McCaffrey, lists Ramoth's total length as forty-five meters; however, this contradicts a number of references in the novels, and the book contains several other obvious errors. It is likely that "forty-five meters" is a mistake for "forty-five feet.") Newly hatched dragons are the size of very large dogs or very small ponies, and reach their full size after eighteen months. Because young dragons grow so fast, their riders must regularly apply oil to their hides to prevent the skin from cracking or drying out.<br/><br/>Like their fire-lizard ancestors, dragons can breathe fire by chewing a phosphine-bearing rock called "firestone," which reacts with an acid in a special stomach-like organ. This forms a volatile gas that can be exhaled at will and ignites upon contact with air. The flame is used to burn Thread from the sky before it reaches the ground.</strong><br/><br/></div>