Happy Dracones Monday! Asian Turtle Dragon
Happy Dracones Monday! Today's dragon is the Asian Turtle Dragon, a dragon found in freshwater habitats in East Asia. Pictured here is a male, displaying a nest of golden eggs in a riverbank. If female turtle dragons see that he is a good father, they are more likely to mate with him.
Tinamou birds in the real world have brightly coloured shiny eggs because they use a similar strategy of sexual selection. In Dracones Mundi, my worldbuilding project, this sort of display is ancestral to all dragons, which is why dragon eggs are golden or pearlescent, whether or not the species also does this display behaviour. Dragons therefore associate shiny surfaces with eggs and will guard shiny objects protectively.
I've named this dragon Asian Turtle Dragon; in this project there are also African and European Turtle dragons, stay tuned to find out more (I post a new dragon design every Monday @draconesmundi )
