Luschan's Salamander

Lyciasalamandra luschani

Status: Vulnerable due to habitat loss and overenthusiastic collectors

The vision of the ferocious and deadly scaled, winged, and fire-breathing dragon came about in the Middle Ages. Dragons were mentioned in ancient Greek mythology, and their relatives are serpentine mythical creatures from Asia, but during the dark ages when there was little literacy, and stories were only passed by word of mouth, the tales became woven together into chimerical beings. There is a bit of the salamander threaded into the dragon mythology as well, for salamanders were long associated with fire. Ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Pliny claimed that salamanders had the ability to resist and even completely extinguish fire, engaging with flames as a warrior to an enemy.

Perhaps because of their habit of choosing dry wood to nest in, when logs were placed in the hearth and set ablaze, the salamanders would scurry forth. The cause and reaction were conflated, leading to a belief that salamanders were the cause of the fire, or spirits of ember and flame.

References:
Book XX: Humorous Writings, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Florence Mcculloch, Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries chapel Hill: University of North carolina Press, 1962.

Thomas Bulfinch (1918). Age of Fable. "The Sal-a-man-der", The Saalfield Publishing company, chicago, Akron OH, NY, pp 97-98. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Age_of_Fable/KiPEPTk3m6sc