Without any references in my hands I believe this comes from the ICR
group. Most societies have legends of dragons, and many refer to smoke
and/or fire coming from their mouths/noses.
1. Henry Morris's favorite animal the Bombardier Beetle produces boiling
water by combining two materials (one is H2O2) stored separately near its
tail end. Some dinos have elaborate skull features that just might be
storage chambers for a similar weapon. I don't remember the name, but
one duck billed dino (paracellophigus ??) has two long curving hollow
(now) crests that are thought to be resonance chamber for a loud call.
But we don't know, so maybe, just maybe, they could have been storage
chambers. (I doubt it.) It wasn't a T-Rex, but a duck-bill.
2. Most Young Earth creationists find the commonality of dragon
legends an evidence that dinosaur-like creatures were alive and had
contact with humans from the creation to the Flood and beyond until most
species died out in the different post-flood world ecology. Some YEC
books claim that stories up to Medieval times (St. George and the Dragon)
refer to real dinosaurs still living at those times. The book of Job
refers to Behemoth and Leviathan. YECs take those to mean Sauropods and
Plesiosaur/Mosasaurs. Modern rumors of unknown beasts in African or
S.American forests excite similar interest. (Even the main-line
paleontology apparently has been looking for "extinct" ground sloths in
S. American - of course those are believed to have been extinct for much
less time than real dinos).
Al McCarrick
mccarric@mailgate.navsses.navy.mil