Body Parts of a Dragon – Wings, Scales, Antlers, Whiskers

All 11 parts on the diagram

Show the list

A European dragon 6

Wings A European dragon has wings like a bat's.
Tail The tail is long and strong.
Legs This dragon stands on four legs with claws.
Scales Scales cover the body, the neck and the legs.
Tongue The tongue ends in a barb, like the tail.
Barb The tail ends in a barb. Older pictures show a plain point.

A Chinese dragon 5

Body The body is long like a snake's. Most Chinese dragons have no wings.
Antlers A Chinese dragon has antlers like a stag's.
Whiskers Long whiskers grow beside the mouth.
Claws The claws are said to be an eagle's.
Pearl Chinese dragons are often shown with a flaming pearl.

How this list was compiled: Dragons are imaginary, so each feature was checked on 2026-10-01 against what two descriptions of the tradition say: (1) Wikipedia, text only: European dragon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_dragon (a scaly, horned, lizard-like creature with leathery bat-like wings, four legs and a long muscular tail; tongue and tail ending in a barb, a trait later than the Tudor period), and Chinese dragon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon (snake-like with four legs, usually no wings; antlers like a stag's, scales like a carp's, claws like an eagle's; the flaming pearl); (2) A. C. Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41617 (the dragon: four legs and a pair of wings; neck, back and legs covered with scales; legs with claws; a barbed tongue; wings always those of a bat, with long ribs; the tail ending in a barb in modern pictures and smooth in Tudor ones; the Chinese dragon without wings); (3) books and a paper read by full-text search on archive.org: P. and K. Johnsgard, Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History, https://archive.org/details/dragonsunicornsn00john (scales like a carp's, claws like an eagle's); M. Correia, The Chinese Dragon: Cultural Contextualization of a Recent Heraldic Charge (2023), https://archive.org/details/2023-chinese-dragon-final-version (scales, claws, whiskers beside the mouth, the pearl); The Magnificent Book of Dragons (2021), https://archive.org/details/the-magnificent-book-of-dragons (stag-like antlers, a snake-like body, claws, long whiskers). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

Dragons are imaginary, so their parts come from stories and old pictures. The top drawing is a European dragon as coats of arms show it. The bottom drawing is a Chinese dragon.

Read the full guide

A European dragon, then a Chinese dragon

Numbers 1 to 6 are on the European dragon: the wings, the tail, the legs, the scales, the tongue and the barb at the tip of the tail. Numbers 7 to 11 are on the Chinese dragon: the long body, the antlers, the whiskers, the claws and the flaming pearl it is often drawn with.

No dragon is real, so no picture is the right one. These two follow heraldry and Chinese tradition.

Questions and answers

Are dragons real?

No. Dragons are creatures of story. This page names the parts that pictures and tales from Europe and from China give them.

What is the difference between a European dragon and a Chinese dragon?

A European dragon is drawn like a huge lizard with four legs, bat-like wings and a barbed tail. A Chinese dragon has a long snake-like body with four short legs, antlers and whiskers, and usually no wings.

Do Chinese dragons have wings?

Usually not. Most Chinese dragons are drawn without wings, and in the stories they fly all the same.

What is at the end of a dragon's tail?

On a European dragon in modern pictures, a barb, drawn here like an arrowhead. It is a late addition: dragons painted in Tudor times had a smooth tail with a blunt point.