Funfacts
- Komodo dragons are the largest and heaviest lizards in the world.
- Komodo dragons have been known to occasionally attack humans in the West Manggarai Regency, a region in Indonesia.
- Komodo dragons were first ever documented in 1910 by Western scientists.
- Komodo dragons breathe through a small tube under the tongue even while swallowing their prey.
Do Komodo dragons breathe fire?
No, they don’t breathe fire, but Komodo dragons do have something medieval about them: skin that looks like chain mail, new research shows. Researchers have known about the bony bits since the dragon was first identified by western scientists in 1910.
How clean are Komodo dragons'mouths?
“The levels of bacteria in the mouth are lower than you’d get for a captive mammalian carnivore, such as a lion or Tasmanian devil,” says Fry. “Komodos are actually remarkably clean animals. This is another nail in the coffin to the idea of them using bacteria as a weapon.” The Komodo dragon: surprisingly clean. Please be respectful of copyright.
Why do Komodo dragons have bony bits?
Researchers have known about the bony bits since the dragon was first identified by western scientists in 1910. The armor protected the animals them from the get go; the “osteoderms” as the bone fragments are called, made komodo skin unsuitable for making leather, saving the animals from commercial exploitation.
Is there an anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology in Komodo dragons?
Reference: Golstein, Tyrrell, Citron, Cox, Recchio, Okimoto, Bryja & Fry. 2013. Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology of the saliva and gingiva from 16 captive komodo dragons (varanus komodoensis): New implications for the "Bacteria as Venom" model. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine.
Can Komodo dragons breathe fire?
These dragons, however, cannot fly, and don't breathe fire. These dragons are called komodo dragons. Komodo dragons live on a few small islands in Indonesia, which is in Asia.
Can Komodo dragons breathe while running?
Facts. The Komodo dragon's saliva which is reddish in color is known to be deadly as it carries around 50 infectious agents, particularly bacteria. These lizards cannot run and breathe at the same time. That's why these Komodo dragons have an interesting pouch which is present under their chin.
How does a lizard breathe?
Lizards breathe in through their lungs. They use muscles of the chest wall for this purpose.
Do Komodo dragons taste the air?
The Komodo Dragon utilizes unique hunting tactics to taste the air and find its prey. Equipped with an extremely sensitive tongue, a Komodo Dragon literally licks the air and tastes where its target has been. Instead of using speed to hunt, the Komodo Dragon relies on this stealthy method to find meals.
Are Komodo dragons bulletproof?
Here we go... Without doubt, one of the coolest living animals on the planet is the Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis, a giant flesh-eating lizard that kills water buffalo, eats children, has venom glands, and is impervious to bullets (ok, I made that last bit up).
Can Komodo dragons poop?
Baby Komodo dragon also roll in poop to avoid being eaten. Sometimes, they hide in the decayed intestines of other animals to prevent hungry Komodo dragons from eating them.
What do reptiles use for breathing?
lungsReptile Respiration The scales of reptiles prevent them from absorbing oxygen through their skin, as amphibians can. Instead, reptiles breathe air only through their lungs. However, their lungs are more efficient than the lungs of amphibians, with more surface area for gas exchange.
Do reptiles breathe with lungs or gills?
Reptiles are turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles. Unlike amphibians, reptiles breathe only through their lungs and have dry, scaly skin that prevents them from drying out.
Do lizards breathe through their nose?
Reptile characteristics Reptiles absorb air through the nose. Once inside the organism, the air passes through the palate. Air goes down the throat to the bronchi.
Did dragons exist?
Chinese scholars have classified the dragon as one of the 369 animal species with scales. Long before the development of paleontology, people unearthed fossilized bones in Asia and Europe--and believed they had found the remains of dragons from an earlier age.
Do Komodo dragons eat their babies?
The Komodo dragon has 60 curved, serrated teeth that pack a punch. 2. Baby Komodo dragons are vulnerable to cannibalism by adults, which comprises 10 percent of its diet from comsuming its species' young ones. As a result, juveniles spend the beginning of their lives living in trees.
What animal kills a Komodo dragon?
Adults are top predators but juvenile dragons are preyed upon by adult dragons, feral dogs, wild boars, civet cats and snakes. Komodo dragons are solitary animal except during breeding although groups of dragons may gather to feed at a kill.
What did Auffenberg think of dragons?
Auffenberg noticed that when large animals like water buffalo were injured by the dragons, they would soon develop fatal infections. Based on this observation, and no actual evidence, he suggested that the dragons use bacteria as a form of venom.
What microbes did Fry study?
When they injected the saliva into mice, many of them died and their blood was rich in one particular microbe— Pasteurella multocida. But Fry thinks the study is laughable. Sure, they studied wild dragons, but the microbes in Fry’s captive animals were actually closer to those from the wild ones in the Texan study.
What is the Komodo dragon's dirty mouth?
In 1969, an American biologist named Walter Auffenberg moved to the Indonesia island of Komodo to study its most famous resident—the Komodo dragon. This huge lizard— the largest in the world—grows to lengths of 3 metres, and can take down large prey like deer and water buffalo.
Where did the bacteria as venom hypothesis come from?
Aside from Auffenberg’s book, the only other support for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis comes from a team at the Universtiy of Texas at Arlington. In 2002, they found a wide range of bacteria in the saliva of 26 wild dragons and 13 captive ones, including 54 disease-causing pathogens.
What does a dragon bite down with?
They bite down with serrated teeth and pull back with powerful neck muscles. The result: huge gaping wounds. The venom then quickens the loss of blood and sends the prey into shock. That doesn’t discount the possibility that the dragons might also rely on oral microbes.
What is the only remaining lifeline for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis?
The only remaining lifeline for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis, says Tyrrell, is that the team only identified the bacteria that they could grow in laboratory cultures. Some species can’t be identified in this way, so one of these might contribute to the dragon’s killing bite.
What is the fastest animal in the world?
The cheetah ’s status as the world’s fastest land animal as based on a single measurement taken in the 1960s. This month, scientists published the first proper measurements of running speed in wild cheetahs… and showed that they really are that fast.
Do Komodo Dragons Have Teeth?
When crocodiles or alligators open their mouths, their teeth are easily visible, and terrifying. But when a komodo dragon airs out its gums–you see just that; gums.
Sword Teeth
Komodo dragons are what’s called ‘ziphodonts’, meaning ‘sword-tooth’. The characterization is appropriate; they have 60 razor sharp, sickle shaped teeth lining their jaws.
What Do Komodo Dragons Use Their Teeth For?
Komodo dragons are, fittingly, carnivorous. They eat birds, mammals, and carrion. They’re one of the few species of lizard to hunt prey larger than themselves. But just what role do their teeth play in all of this?
Do Komodo Dragons Bite Humans?
Komodo dragons don’t normally hunt humans; but they will defend themselves if threatened or trapped. Young komodo dragons usually run from humans, and from bigger lizards who will eat them if given the chance.
What is the largest lizard in the world?
Komodo dragons are the largest lizard species in the world. The animals, which live on a handful of Indonesian islands, are the top predators in tropical savannahs, where the 150-pound beasts hunt other lizards, rodents, monkeys, deer and even young water buffalo.
What are the bony bits in a dragon called?
The armor protected the animals them from the get go; the “osteoderms” as the bone fragments are called, made komodo skin unsuitable for making leather, saving the animals from commercial exploitation.
How old is Komodo Dragon?
To start, the team took CT scans of two Komodo dragons, according to a press release. They obtained the the remains of a 9-foot-long, 19- year-old Komodo dragon that was donated to the Fort Worth Zoo after it passed away. (Only its head fit into the scanner.)
Do komodo dragons fight?
The animals are known to battle one another for mates or over food. “Young komodo dragons spend quite a bit of time in trees, and when they’re large enough to come out of the trees, that’s when they start getting in arguments with members of their own species,” co-author Christopher Bell, also of the University of Texas at Austin, says.
Where were the art stolen during the Nazi occupation?
During the Nazi occupation of France, many valuable works of art were stolen from the Jeu de Paume museum and relocated to Germany. One brave French woman kept detailed notes of the thefts
