Dragons of the Americas and South Pacific

First, compare the dragon below (Quetzalcoatl) to this: eerie, eh? Especially considering that the the Mesoamericans migrated from Aisia thousands of years before civilization established itself there, and dragons began to materialize in bronze statues. Makes you think: are dragons mythical?

I have already argued my case for classifying these creatures as dragons in The Overview SO, if you haven't read that, please do so now. My research into the New World dragon field had been limited, but fascinating. Kukulcan, the Mayan plumed serpent controlled the winds, coincinding somewhat into the Chinese concept of dragons controlling the rain. Since I have yet to delve deeper into the world of the New World dragon phenomenon, I will now moove on to my scratchy, patchy, but somewhat complete list:

North America

The piasa or "the bird which devours human beings" was a creature that lived in harmony with the Illini tribe. It was thirty (30) feet long and twelve (12) feet tall. It had huge, leathery wings like those of a bat, four sets of taloned feet. It was tricolored: blood red, black, and green. The peace between this great predator lasted untill a great battle erupted and it came to feed on the bodies of the warriors that were strewn on the battle field, and it liked the taste of human flesh. It then began to feed on live humans, and the tribe new it had to be destroyed. A brave young warrior came up with the idea to bait the creature with a live human 'victim' and destroy it when it came to the ground. The warrior, Massatoga, volunteered to be the bait, and the tribe succesfully destroyed the monster. They then carved huge petroglyphs on a rock face depicting the monster. These carvings remained untill 1856 when a mining company destroyed them. God bless the American dream.

Oniont was a huge serpent with a single horn that could pierce rock. If one was fortuneate enough to find the tiniest fragment of this horn, one could cure all human diseases!

South America


Chac: A mayan Rain God, resembling the Indian Makara.
Coatlcue: an Aztec goddes that had two dragon heads and a skirt of snakes. She represents the duality of nature.
Kukulcan: mayan feathered serpent, the equivelant of the Aztec Quetzalcoatl.
Mayan Earth Monster (native name uknown to me at this time): A large iguana-crocodile creature with feathers for a tail. It is said to live amongst the trees.
Quetzalcoatl: Aztec Feathred-Serpent God. Most famous New American Dragon (somehow he's been linked to UFO's [another interest of mine] but how the @#$% does a feathred snake look like a flying saucer???)
Xiuhcoatl: Aztec Fire serpent that guards temples; resembles a horned rattlesnake.

Hawii:

In the book Dragons and Unicorns: a Natural History Mo'o'inae is described as a dragon. People who have surfed enough dragon websites has surely come across mention of her as the "mother of all dragons" and that there is nothing more known about her. Well, having been in Maui for 10 days, I was lucky enough to come across a rather large (and expensive) volume on Hawiian mythology. Well, I'll tell you this. I'm not sure that she can really be put on such a list, and I just want everybody to finally know what Mo'o'inae is the daughter of Kane-huna-moku and Ka-onohi-ula. She is a mo'o, or in western terms : a gecko. That's all I have to say. For now.

New Zealand:
Taniwha: the Taniwha is a creature that inhabits the deeps of the ocean and rivers. Dangerous when hurt, it hungers for revenge and can then become very deadly. Tutaeporoporo is one example. Tuteporoporo lived in the Whanguanui river, and was a favorite of the chief Tuariki. But the monster turned deadly, and began swallowing boatfulls of innocent people, and was eventually killed.

Australia:
Kakuru: a large serpent that was the rainbow which heralded the rainy season (there's even a dinosaur named after this guy!)

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