Created by Anne McCaffrey as a part of her Dragonriders of Pern novels, the Dragons of Pern are a genetically modified animal based on one of Pern's local reptilian life-forms, the fire-lizard.

History

Named 'Dragons' by the Pernese due to their resemblance to Western Dragons from the legends of old Earth.

Created to fight Thread, a major problem on Pern, these dragons are large enough to carry a full human, (with specially made flying harness for safety). The human rider is bonded to the dragon by a process known as 'impressing' which, with a dragon's and rider's combined telepathic abilities allows the rider to help guide the dragon.

Physiology

Like their base ancestors the firelizards, they can breath fire by chewing phosphine-bearing rock which reacts with an acid in a second stomach. This forms a volatile gas that can be breathed out at will and ignites when contacting air. This flame is used to burn Thread from the sky before it reaches the ground.

One major improvement from the original stock is increased intelligence and personality, the dragon often expressing opinions of its own, teasing its rider and disagreeing. They tend to look upon their fire-lizard 'cousins' as inferior, but with affection.

When a dragon's rider dies, the dragon will go 'between' with no destination, thus effecting suicide. Many attempts have been made to prevent this, mostly with little successes. (due to the strength of the bond between dragon and rider)

Having leathery hide instead of scales, Perneese dragons love having special oils rubbed into them and is in-fact a major duty of their riders to prevent the hide from cracking or drying out.

Perneese dragons defecate through the tips of their tail, 'between' when possible (a modification done during their 'upgrading' from fire-lizards).