For some reason, I've always thought that if Nessie is real, he or she is actually a dinosaur that has somehow clandestinely survived throughout the ages.

Even if Nessie likely doesn't exist, when I noticed that the Chinese Zodiac includes the dragon as one of its celestial animals, I figured that, perhaps, since Chinese culture has flourished relatively uninterrupted for millennia, and their oral tradition likely predates their written records by thousands of years, the Chinese dragon was in fact a dinosaur species who hung around long after the majority of his or her fellow beasties became extinct, to be remembered by an unbroken Chinese oral tradition.

Could have also been a really large lizard descendent of the dinosaur that was wiped out thousands of years ago.

Or something some guy made up.

Could living Chinese dinosaur dragons breathe fire thousands of years ago?

I'm not sure.

But if they were dinosaurs, they certainly possessed an enviable will to survive.

They theoretically lasted much longer than other dinosaurs regardless.

And still in fact culturally exist till this day.

Not bad.