The Real Dragon Of The Pleistocene--Megalania!

[MarkGelbart]

I came across an old issue of Scientific American while I was spring cleaning. There was an article about Komodo dragons in it, and it reminded me of Megalania, the giant extinct lizard of the Pleistocene that used to live in Australia. Try to imagine an 18 foot long lizard with a poisonous bite.

Because the two species are closely related, they probably had similar adaptations.

I found a number of interesting facts about Komodo dragons in this article and a more recent PNAS publication.

These large lizards can consume up to an incredible 80% of their weight in food in a single sitting.

Komodo dragons have a forked ######, known as a hemipenes. When they mount the female from behind the left hip, the right fork is inserted, and vice versa.

Scientists used to think all of the bacteria in their mouths facilitated their prey's death through septic infection, but just last year, scientists discovered that Komodo dragons actually have poison glands. I post a link to this article on my blog where I also just posted a 970 word essay about Megalania and

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[Fossildude19]

Mark,

Thanks for the info! How very interesting. I plan to check out your essay shortly!

Having a forked ##### must facilitate things for a Komodo Dragon.

Thanks again for sharing.

[Fossildude19]

Mark -

Just finished the essay - great work! Thaks for sharing here!

Very informative, and interesting - keep up the great writing. Going back to look at the Pleistocene Fishing essay!...

[megalania]

I have this crazy feeling that someone is talking about me

[siteseer]

Scientists used to think all of the bacteria in their mouths facilitated their prey's death through septic infection, but just last year, scientists discovered that Komodo dragons actually have poison glands. I post a link to this article on my blog where I also just posted a 970 word essay about Megalania and Komodo dragons. http://markgelbart.wordpress.com/

Mark,

There was a show on lizards last year. It think it was a "Nova" episode. It wasn't that long ago that scientists said that there were only two venomous species in the world but now they are finding poison glands in a number of species. That also means that the people who wanted to say Tyrannosaurus had a septic bite are going to have to back off that too because they based that assumption on the Komodo dragon.