I have a few questions about the science of the world in Game of Thrones. Yes, I know I need a life:
1. The solar system
What kind of whacked-out orbit does the planet have, that summers and winters each last for years? And what kind of adaptations do living things have to deal with these long periods of single seasons? How do humans manage to survive in conditions like that, especially in the north, where there’s snow even in summer?
What are the global wind and water currents like? Within each summer and winter, is there a rainy season and a dry season? If so, why does it always seem to be so snowy by the wall, but never rainy at King’s Landing?
2. Plant assemblages
All right. So, we’ve seen maples and birches in the forest. I think we’ve also seen something in the chestnut family, and what looked to me like some ferns. What other plants are there? Where are the farms, and what plants are the main food source for the people on this weird planet with its multi-year growing seasons? And what family is the godswood tree in?
3. Dragons
A. Dragon evo-devo questions:
When Drogo gives Dany the dragon eggs, it’s clear they have scales on them. Why do the eggs have a layer of ectoderm on the outside?
In the last episode, when we see baby dragons, we see that the structure of the dragon wing is much like that of a bat; the thumb is made into a hook, and the wing itself is a dermal membrane stretched across four elongated fingers. What clade of the Reptilia is this, such that it independently evolved basically the same wing structure as that found in the Chiroptera?
What’s a dragon’s skull structure like? Are dragons anapsids?
B. Dragon physiology and ecology
What organ makes that shrieking noise?
What’s the incubation period for the eggs? Apparently, the eggs were sitting around for a long, long time before their environment got either hot enough or dry enough (or both) to get the eggs to hatch. What’s the environmental cue that gets the eggs to hatch, and how do the baby dragons inside the eggs stay alive while waiting for that cue?
In what environment did dragons evolve? Are dragons a bit like bristlecone pines, in that they’re adapted to dry forests with periodic fires?
What’s the expected biogeographic distribution of dragons at this point? Are they globally extinct in the world of Game of Thrones, or are they merely locally extinct within the Seven Kingdoms? How many species of dragon are there, anyway?