Many scientists and palaeontologists believe that Giant Komodo Dragons evolved directly from dinosaurs, and there are many similarities in their DNA to support this. Because of this, many experts believe that Giant Komodo Dragons are the closest living relative to dinosaurs today.
It is a reptile, a not-to-distant relative of the snake; both animals share a forked tongue. Dragons can reach 10 feet in length, and weigh as much as 300 pounds. Though it resembles one, the Komodo is not a direct descendant of the dinosaurs. They do, however, share a common ancestor from some 300 million years ago.
Fossils from Flores' hot central region indicate that Komodo dragons first appeared on the island around one million years ago, and lived alongside pygmy elephants, giant tortoises and giant rats, and continued to do so for thousands of years.
The key differences between a Komodo dragon and a T-Rex are their bodies, method of movement, and range. T-rex was a tall bipedal dinosaur with very short arms and a massive head, but Komodo dragons are short quadrupedal reptiles.
The evolutionary development of the Komodo dragon started with the genus Varanus, which originated in Asia about 40 million years ago and migrated to Australia, where it evolved into giant forms (the largest of all being the recently extinct Varanus priscus, or "Megalania"), helped by the absence of competing placental ...
Komodo dragons have thrived in the harsh climate of the Indonesian Islands for millions of years. Fossils, from 50,000 years ago, show they used to live in Australia once upon a time! Due to the increasing threats of habitat destruction, poaching and natural disasters, these dragons are considered a vulnerable species.
Still, paleontologists who have been studying dinosaurs for as long as man can remember, believe that there is no doubt that Komodo Dragon and its DNA strand can be linked to this period in history, making them the only remaining proof of living dinosaurs.
Yes, birds are the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs because of several shared characteristics: Lay eggs: Like birds, dinosaurs built nests in which to lay eggs. Their young would hatch from these eggs. This way of reproduction is called oviparity.
But the largest lizards still on the planet, the Komodo dragon, survived due to a lucky combination of mediocre habitat on their home islands and unintended human interventions.
In the view of most paleontologists today, birds are living dinosaurs. In other words, the traits that we accept as defining birds — key skeletal features as well as behaviors including nesting and brooding — actually arose first in some dinosaurs.
The researchers said the ancestor of the Komodo dragon most likely evolved in Australia and spread westward, reaching the Indonesian island of Flores by 900,000 years ago. Comparisons between fossils and living Komodo dragons on Flores show that the lizard's body size has remained relatively stable since then.
What Eats It? 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.
Last April, the hatching of the Komodo dragon eggs marked an Australian first as no other zoo, sanctuary or facility had successfully bred Komodo dragons in the country.
Though attacks are exceptionally rare, they do occasionally occur, mostly when a park guard lets his focus slip for a moment, or a villager has a particularly unlucky day. In 2007, a dragon killed an 8-year-old boy on Komodo Island, marking the first fatal attack on a human in 33 years, the Guardian reported.
Crocodiles are not dinosaurs, but both crocodiles and dinosaurs came from the crown group Archosaurs. Archosaurs were reptiles that included birds, crocodiles, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs. Modern-day birds are descendants of feathered dinosaurs, evolving over the last 65 million years.
"We can assume that the komodo may have kicked along in Australia right up until human arrival. There's no reason to assume not." "Perhaps humans were the cause of their extinction; perhaps it was climate change, perhaps a combination of both.
Birds: Birds are the only dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction event 65 million years ago. Frogs & Salamanders: These seemingly delicate amphibians survived the extinction that wiped out larger animals. Lizards: These reptiles, distant relatives of dinosaurs, survived the extinction.
About 65 million years ago, a massive asteroid slammed into Earth, darkening the sky and killing a large number of animals, including the dinosaurs. But for some reason, certain creatures survived, like mammals, crocodiles, birds, and turtles.
So, it's not currently scientifically possible to bring back a dinosaur. I do think that the tools over the next 20 years could get us to the point where you could engineer species with dinosaur-like traits.
The age immediately prior to the dinosaurs was called the Permian. Although there were amphibious reptiles, early versions of the dinosaurs, the dominant life form was the trilobite, visually somewhere between a wood louse and an armadillo. In their heyday there were 15,000 kinds of trilobite.
Tardigrades have been around a long time.
Fossils date their existence on Earth to more than 500 million years ago. This means tardigrades have survived the planet's last five mass extinction events. They owe their longevity to some special characteristics.
He and all of the other researchers, however, suspect that more recent dinosaurs even closer to the K-T boundary will be found in the future. For now, however, the 65-million-year-old Triceratops is the world's last known surviving dinosaur.
Komodo dragon is now listed as Endangered as rising sea levels threaten its survival. The world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, could disappear in the next century as rising sea levels threaten to submerge its habitat.