don't need fairy books. There are pictures of known large reptiles that don't exist now on some Roman pottery.
Care to provide scholarly references.
I'll ask you to think about just one thing with as open a mind as you can. The Chinese 'zodiac' of animals that represent the different years (I'm not sure if it is called a zodiac... but I think you know what I mean: year of the dog, year of the rat, etc...) -- all are known real animals except one -- the dragon. WHY would they include the dragon in a list of normal, everyday animals? Could it have been that long ago the dragon was also a normal, everyday animal?
Because dragons featured heavily in their relious beliefs, and you wouldnt want to offend the sacred ones by not including them on your zodiac.