The Evolution of Komodo Dragons

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Dutch sailors heading back from the more remote islands of Indonesia would tell stories of sightings of dragons, sometimes fire breathing giant beasts. When the islands were studied they were found to not be dragons but a new undiscovered animal, a mysterious giant lizard. They may not be dragons but they definitely look like they are from another time and differ from most apex predators of other ecosystems around the world. So how did a large ancient lizard come to rule over these islands?
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Sources:
journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
www.nature.com/articles/s4155...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...
www.researchgate.net/figure/0...
www.eurekalert.org/multimedia...
royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
www.jstor.org/stable/3893395

Опубликовано:

16 июн 2022

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Комментарии : 818

@purplehaze2358 Год назад

The fact that there's a pretty good chance there was a point in history at which cow-sized elephants were hunted by giant monitor lizards is frankly kind of surreal to me. Island evolution is a hell of a drug.

@evelynlamoy8483 Год назад

And a hobbit sitting nearby watching.

@kyrab7914 Год назад

Tbh the lizards prob also hunted our hominid cousins.

@celtofcanaanesurix2245 Год назад

@@evelynlamoy8483 while fighting off giant storks like the tales about Pygmys told by the ancient Greeks...

@user-ed9qu5im2y Год назад

And not even that long ago in the scheme of our species' existence on Earth! I think some homo sapiens would have seen it go down with their own eyes. (Iirc homo sapiens made it to those islands before the pygmy elephants went extinct).

@patprr1756 Год назад

No such thing as evolution.

@damyenhockman5440 Год назад

I would say being the last surviving giant lizards is more intimidating than if it was island gigantism.

@theflyingdutchguy9870 Год назад

i dont think they need to be any more intimidating😅

@andrewblake2254 Год назад

If you understand how they work, they are more terrifying than crocs.

@concept5631 Год назад

@@andrewblake2254 Its a matter of perspective really.

@kinggamer4618 Год назад

@@concept5631 no they'll hunt you like a horror movie fashion walking around with a single cut

@a.wenger3964 Год назад

Wow I always thought they were the result of island gigantism, but it seems Komodo dragons are a relict population from an entire family of even larger lizards.

@dreadpirateroberts1358 Год назад

Terrifyingly they're products of the opposite. Island Dwarfism. The largest lizard alive is a dwarf.

@bkjeong4302 Год назад

They're actually an example of insular dwarfism. Not kidding. The Komodo dragons in Australia (not megalania, but true Komodo dragons) were slightly larger than those alive today. And it gets crazier, because Komodo dragon remains have been found in Java as well. During the Pleistocene, Komodo dragons somehow got past Wallace's Line and coexisted with tigers and leopards.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@bkjeong4302 holy shit, even more reasons for me to love this animal.

@tinhlam2826 Год назад

@@bkjeong4302 They were destroyed by tigers and leopards to the last one. Look how they eat those goats. It took them a month to eat just one. They have tiny teeth and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Therefore, they wait for animals to rot before they can eat them.

@astick5249 Год назад

@@tinhlam2826 thats actually an unfortunate misconception. This originated from observations of Komodo dragons biting an animal and then later the animal getting killed by infection and other Komodo dragons, causing people to think thats actually how they hunted. But in reality what they were seeing was a failed hunt. The infection usually being from water buffalos wallowing in poop filled mud after getting bitten and then the other Komodos in the area taking advantage, which the original attacker potentially not even being able to get the spoils either. How Komodo dragons actually hunt is more in line with other large carnivores, that being they kill/subdue their prey immediately. Their rather small teeth even come into play with how they do it. They will first slowly and casually walk up to their prey and then dash suddenly to bite an animal's leg and tear apart it's tendons, crippling it. With their prey subdued they then can begin feeding. Which when finished they have been observed wiping their mouth on grass for 20 or so minutes (don't quite remember) to clean themselves. And with how long they take to eat it can actually give them an advantage over mammals as they can go just fine with much less food.

@bkjeong4302 Год назад

One more thing to note is that Komodo dragons not only originated in Australia, they actually made it even further west than their current range indicates, outside of Australasia. They managed to colonize Java back when it was part of Sundaland and thus a part of mainland Eurasia. Not only that, this also means they coexisted with tigers and leopards.

@tinhlam2826 Год назад

They were destroyed by tigers and leopards to the last one. Look how they eat those goats. It took them a month to eat just one. They have tiny teeth and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Therefore, they wait for animals to rot before they can eat them.

@bkjeong4302 Год назад

@@tinhlam2826 ….no just no. First of all, if tigers and leopards were that much of a problem for them, they could not have made it into Sundaland. Second, Komodo dragons actually have large cutting teeth. Third, Komodo dragons do NOT hunt by biting prey and waiting a long time for it to die, this is a myth based on the cases of prey (usually water buffalo, which are larger than the animals Komodo dragons evolved to hunt) escaping attacks. Komodo dragons evolved to hunt deer-sized prey, and their actual hunting method is to repeatedly bite their prey with the aforementioned slicing teeth to cut it open and disable it, then eat it alive.

@tinhlam2826 Год назад

@@bkjeong4302 You only divine this animal because it looks like what you see in the movies. Watch any videos of them hunting on youtube. An inactive animal. Look at the pictures that abound on google. They look like a 100 year old man, their teeth are too small to be seen.

@bkjeong4302 Год назад

@@tinhlam2826 The teeth aren't visible because they're embedded in tissue, NOT because they're small. Go look up "Komodo dragon skull" to see how big those teeth really are. Also, have you actually seen RU-vid videos of Komodo dragons? Plenty of videos of them actively hunting deer and eating them alive.

@tinhlam2826 Год назад

@@bkjeong4302 With the bite force of a cat, those damn inflexible movements? Not to mention their skulls are as thin as a sheet of paper and are like toys. They will be the lunch of tigers and leopards.

@MammothChats Год назад

I hope these relics of the past continue to thrive, and appreciate every day their species has survived.

@IAkaksjdjtjeidi Год назад

Same

@Toy1er Год назад

Yes, I'm sure the lizards are quite thankful for not being utterly wiped out by humans. Yet.

@kyleschmitt9964 Год назад

Definitely!! One of my favorite animals for sure. I gotta say though, one theory for how that bigger ancestor of the komodo dragon from australia went extinct seems to be that it was by humans, and if that’s true then in this one instance I really can’t blame them LOL imagine living near that absolute beast. I would still kind of love for them to be around though it sounds amazing

@SA-wu4lv Год назад

They've been persistent so far, but they're threatened by rising sea levels and illegal activity.

@1TakoyakiStore Год назад

That's actually pretty odd. Usually island dwarfism or gigantism takes place as there's typically some sort of change to an animal once it gets locked to an isolated environment. But on Komodo Island and Flores they have remained morphologically stable all things considered. I guess that it's such a successful and flexible body form that little change is needed to adapt.

@bkjeong4302 Год назад

Actually Komodo dragons have undergone a slight level of insular dwarfism. Those in Australia (no, I don't mean megalania, but V. komodoensis back when it first evolved) were somewhat larger than those in Indonesia today.

@eljanrimsa5843 Год назад

The main thing to learn from is that we like to talk about island gigantism and island dwarfism, but the terms don't mean much.

@maddeeps5520 Год назад

I feel like what we like to refer to as "island gigantism" and "island dwarfism" is actually something more along the lines of "island average-ism" where animals originally ABOVE a certain threshold of size/energy need will become smaller, while animals originally BELOW that threshold instead grow larger to a point. Maybe Komodo Dragons just happened to already be at that "island sweet spot" (maybe a little over it since someone else said the older specimens discovered on Australia were slightly larger than the modern ones)

@ekosubandie2094 Год назад

They seem to have benefitted from the introduced animals like buffalos and deers after the extinction of local dwarf stegodons which might have prevented them from shrinking even further in recent times

@kotarojujo2737 Год назад

@@ekosubandie2094 so sambar deer also recently introduced in those island? Interesting

@dtgamerk9670 Год назад

Another reason monitors became successful predators is breathing. Lizards run and breathe using the same set of muscles, putting that top speed cap and a short run timer. Monitors overcame this with that big puffy throat/neck. Its actually muscular enough to pull air in and out, allowing them to breathe and run. Love the content Moth Light! Keep it coming!

@anyascelticcreations Год назад

Woh, I didn't know that. That's wild.

@indrajeet Год назад

They also have a higher metabolic rate then other reptiles.

@kevinlangley2748 Год назад

How do you breathe with all the bs you're spitting? Lizard do not run and breathe with the same muscles. Monitors do not use their fucking throat waddle, dewlap or anything outside of their actual respiratory system to breath. STOP SPREADING BULLSHIT TO MAKE YOURSELF SMELL BETTER.

@revenevan11 Год назад

Today I learned that, as a person with asthma, I can relate to lizards more than I expected 😅

@PraetorianMan Год назад

Something to point out about giant lizards competing with mammalian carnivores. 1. The giant lizard on Timor you mentioned was able to survive for millions of years alongside modern leopards and hyenas, and 2. There are now mammalian carnivores on Komodo as well. Feral dogs have been let lose on the island for quite a long time now and the balance of power between the dogs and the lizards is heavily stilted in favor of the lizards. As it turns out, “giant lizard with serrated shark teeth and a venomous bite” has a lot going for it, and it’s not the kind of thing that mammalian predators can easily quash.

@seabass1428 Год назад

Whenever I see a Moth Light Media upload, my day gets a little better.

@kotarojujo2737 Год назад

So, Dragon, Giant Birds, Elephant and Hobbit. Flores basically are real life middle-earth.

@andrewsuryali8540 Год назад

Evenrually someone will dig up a weird contraption that the hobbits used to mount on their pygmy war elephants to fight the komodo dragons and giant storks.

@experience741 Год назад

Yup

@willempasterkamp862 Год назад

@@andrewsuryali8540 Can imagine the dwarf-elephants swimming and tugging the hobbits rafts from island to island, btw perfect explanation how they came there.

@thomasjuniardi3559 Год назад

It's literally located in the middle of the earth map 😁

@DBT1007 Год назад

always remember that.. only in english name that they add the "dragon" name part. in the original name, indonesian name, it's just "komodo". english love to butcher words in many languages. soo dont ever think these komodos are dragon. no they not. it's the delusion of english ppl back then that first named this giant lizard.

@dinohall2595 Год назад

One of my favorite modern animals, and probably the most badass lizard alive. So cool to see their evolutionary history. Another video I didn't know I needed but am glad I watched!

@nickmitsialis Год назад

I often wondered why Komodos didn't 'last' in Australia or even create a presence in Papua New Guinea, a literal reptile paradise.

@zegion8203 Год назад

@@nickmitsialis Probably because early human settlers in Papua New Guinea deemed the komodo dragon too dangerous and eradicated them to extinction.

@doommarauder3532 Год назад

They are the most badass yea. Unfortunely only the second coolest name after the Gila Monster.

@nickmitsialis Год назад

@@zegion8203 darn that 'impact on megafauna'. If the dinosaurs lived into 'human/hominid' time, they probably would have been hunted to extinction too.

@orangesilver4568 Год назад

@@nickmitsialis I think saw somewhere humans are a major reason they didn't last in Australia just like mammoths.

@ladywindermeresfan Год назад

i’ve visited komodo island and seen the dragons. some just chilling and doing their lizard thing, some even fighting each other. they are truly terrifying. you suddenly become thoroughly aware that you are not the apex predator here. and yet, the first thing we saw when we arrived at the beach was a tourist, calmly ignoring the increasingly frantic yelling of the guide and taking pictures while a salivating dragon was jogging towards him. and i guess that’s how humans took over the world 🤷‍♀️

@BestAnswer12549 Год назад

That's so cool. There's a zoo by me that has I think three or four Komodo dragons.

@alexrennison8070 Год назад

@@BestAnswer12549 The London Zoo had a couple when I went. Saw one basking under a heat lamp from afar.

@BestAnswer12549 Год назад

@@alexrennison8070 I wonder if anybody was able to breed Komodo dragons?

@ahsanvirk130 Год назад

Reminds me of that Swedish tourist who fell asleep by the base of a tree and woke up to find a Komodo feasting on him

@BaldguyWifi Год назад

@@ahsanvirk130 wow do you have a link or remember what year it was? I want to look that up lol

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

The video I never imagined, but the one I definitely needed. My favorite animal of all time. These things have natural chainmail in the form of interlaced bones along the inside of their skin. They have sensory organs in their feetthat detect vibrations up to a kilo out. Both an excellent sense of smell plus a Jacobson organ. Excellent eyesight. Unhinged jaw though they can just tear flesh. Better hearing than most reptiles. Digs, swims, climbs (though more easily when younger), adopted immunity to lethal bacteria that grow in the wounds that are constantly created in their gums every time they close their mouths by slicing the gum tissue that grows quickly over the entire tooth. Just an absolute unit of a predator.

@michaelgallardo395 Год назад

tell me more please

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@michaelgallardo395 they actually don't share a direct ancestor with tegus. Lots of people think they're related in that way, when they're actually just a great example of convergent evolution. Tegus are family Teiidae, the Komodo Dragon from Varanidae. The most direct ancestor of the tegu is an aquatic Squamid (I forget if it's a pliosaur or plesiosaur), while the most direct one of the Komodo dragon is the topic of this video.

@doommarauder3532 Год назад

I think I learned more from your comment than this video.

@rickwrites2612 Год назад

I have that last problem to, where my tooth cuts my gums in same place repeatedly, gotta put a special steroid paste on it. I feel for you, Senore Komodo...

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@doommarauder3532 Moth Light Media did an amazing job, though. I just know a lot of this animal's current physiology. I never really looked up its ancestry though (no idea why I never thought to), but MLM focused more on its ancestry than its physiology. Still an amazing vid.

@normalwan2262 Год назад

We have nile monitors in south africa and let me tell you even though they're smaller than komodo's they are still very scary

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

I had one before. Allowed it free roam of the house. Had a bedroom set up for it. Definitely not an animal you turn your back on.

@juanjoyaborja.3054 Год назад

They inspired the tale of St, George's dragon

@RDSyafriyar Год назад

"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril." - J.R.R. Tolkien

@CNYKnifeNerd Год назад

White America's view of black people

@nothingnobody1454 Год назад

@@CNYKnifeNerd lol

@rizkyadiyanto7922 Год назад

@@CNYKnifeNerd westerner's view of islam.

@jaredmn8580 Год назад

I have so much respect for Komodo Dragons

@theflyingdutchguy9870 Год назад

the perenti is one of the kost famous monitor species. they are famous for tripotting to look for prey or danger. imagine a 3 foot lizard standing on its back feet balancing on its tail. it looks so badass

@astick5249 Год назад

Makes me think of when bears stand on their 2 back legs

@FloozieOne Год назад

Shucks, now I have to go find videos of parenti. One more thing on my list of searches, thanks a lot. Grin.

@ahsanvirk130 Год назад

Paleosaniwa looks like a scaled up version of a Gila Monster

@kirksealls1912 Год назад

Fun fact: The story for the 1933 film “King Kong” was in part based on the first newspaper accounts recounting the discovery of Komodo dragons. I’ve also heard that, in addition to having more efficient hearts, monitor lizards have muscles in their throats that can aid in respiration while running, which is a problem for other lizards, as the same muscles used for respiration are used for running, meaning they can’t effectively breathe while running.

@theflyingdutchguy9870 Год назад

most people when they think about a komodo dragon. they think about a giant brown monitor. but when you see them in real life. you realise they have soms awesome colors.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

When I saw one in real life, I realized I was the prey, should it haven gotten loose.

@S.F157 Год назад

Hot climate makes their scales usually dark, and I don’t know why but they look different in captivity than in the Nature. And I don’t think Komodos have subspecies but I notice Komodos on Komodo island are larger and different by looks a little than ones on Flores.

@kotarojujo2737 Год назад

This might be can also applied to Non-Avian theropod dinosaur

@icekangaroo9392 Год назад

Hello made it to this video super early haha have a good weekend everyone

@edwardfletcher7790 Год назад

Flores was an incredible hotspot for weird evolution...

@Andrea-rw9tf Год назад

I think they’re fascinating, and scary all at the same time.

@pcm1011 Год назад

I just think they're neat

@tinhlam2826 Год назад

Komodo dragons are not scary at all. They are not as fast as tigers and leopards. They don't have the sneakiness of an alligator. They are also stupid. The only thing that makes them scary is the movies you've seen before, where dragons spit fire. Komodo dragons are evolutionary failures, their teeth are so small they can't be seen. They have the bite force of a domestic cat.

@tutu7564 Год назад

I was just discussing about the power of Komodo dragons with some people for the last three days lol. What a coincidence.

@vishnuisgreat471 Год назад

Komodo dragons are the closest real life version of an East Asian dragon!

@featgorgon3985 Год назад

Something else interesting about dragons, their young actually live an almost exclusively arboreal lifestyle up until they get large enough to be able to survive amongst larger dragons

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

Yep, because they're cannibalistic as a species.

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

@@mariastevens6406 not fair. Predators eat anything available that is in their food group range. A larger lizard that eats smaller lizards routinely would not be able to tell a random lizard from another Komodo, so gulp. That doesn't make it cannabalistic. It just makes it unpicky.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@keithfaulkner6319 cannibalistic means able and ready to eat their own, and no, many predators aren't cannibalistic, despite cannibalism being a norm in nature. And I have no idea what your claim about being unfair is, I was merely stating a fact about my favorite animal. There was no moral or amoral consideration in my comment, because there is none to have in this topic.

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

@@mariastevens6406 the term "cannabal" very much implies evil intent, bad actor, just bring a horrible person. Yes i know these aren't people, but the stigma transfers.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@keithfaulkner6319 if you're upset over something that is biologically harmful in humanity being a norm in other species, then maybe you shouldn't watch a nature channel? You'd hate to learn about spiders and scorpions if you want to attribute human-conjured concepts to nonhuman animals 🤣😅🤣😅

@grishlok5717 Год назад

Just turned my awful day into a good one seeing this so fresh

@jabbarmuhammad8804 Год назад

Komodo dragons are such fascinating animals

@joeshmoe8345 Год назад

That’s right big dog don’t worry about what the haters say. Thanks a bunch for sharing this video with us, stay up G.

@bunlocke Год назад

I wasn't scared of komodo dragons before this but after learning their top speed is 20mph I'm terrified.

@malcontender6319 Год назад

When Steve Irwin himself was very, very careful arouund them, I knew there was "Daenja!"

@robinsonrom Год назад

I believe he was talking about Perentie monitors there. Still pretty intense though!

@kotarojujo2737 Год назад

@@robinsonrom reminds me of Japanese Show

@quinndenver4075 Год назад

I doubt they ever get that fast

@ing_1b_bimaakhmadi500 Год назад

@@quinndenver4075 20km/h(or 13 mph) Tho they lunge and if you're targeted because of you are injured there are some chance that you're surrounded by them.

@Nazrigar Год назад

Awww yes! I'm so glad you're doing something about Komodo Dragons! They're among my favorite animals, alongside the tiger!

@Grubgotkicked Год назад

love your content so much, thank you for what you do. i would really love another video on insects or any invertebrates in general!

@christianbontempo8859 Год назад

Could you imagine if we brought Komodo Dragons back to Australia the same way we did for the Tasmanian Devil?

@laurensahanna5826 Год назад

I'll do you one better: the megalania

@andrewblake2254 Год назад

I cant imagine anything that would turn every Australian up north into a murderous hunter overnight more quickly.

@astick5249 Год назад

I still feel that we should at least test this idea (with just tagged males so we wont get new lizards before we are ready for official re-wilding and so we can track their movements)

@andrewblake2254 Год назад

@@astick5249 What do you think they are going to eat out there? Buffalo? Small people? They went extinct for a reason. Have you even been up north?

@astick5249 Год назад

@@andrewblake2254 Theres kangaroos, emus, invasive domestic cats, rabbits, many others. We don't now exactly what cased the extinctions in Australia but the two major ones could be climate change and humans, the human side of things can be easily fixed as all we need to do is be mindful of their populations, and the komodo dragons likely indirectly died out due to their original prey numbers dropping, but with unregulated amounts of prey everywhere i think they have a good chance.

@reisingerii Год назад

Best I've seen in a long time! You have done your homework, good job!

@Turdfergusen382 Год назад

Great video. I enjoy your content. More people should see this type of stuff.

@XDarkGreyX Год назад

4:05 Made me crack a smile. Unexpected

@spinnirack3645 Год назад

I agree with this topic

@lucyanderson2079 Год назад

always love your videos! keep it up man x

@Mikailodon Год назад

Ah yes the evolution of my mascot animal

@currycoatl Год назад

Mmmyess im always so happy when you post, your videos are great!!

@matthewkehoe4015 Год назад

Great video as always, love your content 👏👏

@simongauthier-daviault1048 Год назад

Your videos bring me so much joy! Keep up the great content!

@youtubealt243 Год назад

Maybe Australia was such a good location for lizards like komodo dragons because of the lack of placental mammals, which have some advantages over marsupial mammals, as well as the searing temperatures of Australia helping to keep cold blooded reptiles more active

@Bigazoa11 Год назад

well I mean we found komodo dragon fossils in java meaning they coexisted and competed with placental mammals like tigers, dholes, and leopards

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

@@Bigazoa11 well they're not there now, so apparently not well enough.

@BeautifulGazelle06 Год назад

@@keithfaulkner6319 I think it’s believed they didn’t actually die out from being outcompeted by mammals, and instead were killed by natural shifts in the environment

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

@@BeautifulGazelle06 ok.did anything else die out at the same time? Climate shift would affect more than dragons. On the other hand competition might affect only dragons.

@BeautifulGazelle06 Год назад

@@keithfaulkner6319 if I remember correctly it also had a large negative effect on the big cats in the area as well, but it’s been a while since I read that so I might have to check again

@Mrf388 Год назад

Very interesting. Its been a while since i've learned something new.

@mtathos_ Год назад

great video, thank you!

@ZeFroz3n0ne907 Год назад

Great video! Love the channel! Watching in the great state of Alaska!

@maximillianquaife-larsen3799 2 месяца назад

Always great videos mate

@BrunoMattei97 Год назад

Love your vids, they are always so insightful and relaxing!

@MsKariSmith Год назад

These videos are always so very interesting to watch & learn. Thank you.

@carlsmith4568 Год назад

This channel is fantastic

@unnecessaryedits2818 Год назад

Monitor lizards are some of my favorite animals. I live in Indonesia now, and whenever I go out to the Thousand Islands off the coast of Jakarta (highly recommend) I love to search for them, because there are many scattered across the islands. They're the Asian Water Monitor subspecies, and I've seen some that were probably close to 9ft in length, and seen them swimming too. It's interesting to me that though they're definitely large enough to hurt or even kill a human, they generally are afraid of people and run away when they see someone.

@dreadedkitty980 Год назад

I love this channel. Awesome little videos.

@travisbicklejr Год назад

Superb video as always, MLM!

@mikerivera9901 Год назад

You posted on my bday! I love you!

@Guydude777 Год назад

Love the topic!

@hekt0rh Год назад

Love your channel and content. A really interesting video!

@artiefufkin88 Год назад

Great vid!

@denizen9998 Год назад

Next talk about their relatives, the largest true lizards of all, the mosasaurs.

@adamgallyot9063 Год назад

They're more closely related to snakes, well snakes evolved from lizards too, so I guess fair point

@pocketmarcy6990 Год назад

Mosasaurs are like ancient cousins to modern lizards, since they have no modern descendants

@sassa82 Год назад

Really interesting video!

@Magneticlaw Год назад

Wasn't aware of monitor's improved cardiovascular system - very cool. Great vid!

@relwalretep Год назад

Great video, and poses the question to me that given Tasmania was part of the Australian continental mass until about 10,000 years ago - were they ever on the small island? If not, why? If so, where'd they go? 🤔

@Ozraptor4 Год назад

There are no monitors, big or small, in Tasmania today (only lizards are skinks and a single agamid species). During the Pleistocene the cold climate and high altitude terrain (including extensive glaciatiation) barred monitors from settling on the peninsula.

@relwalretep Год назад

@@Ozraptor4 That's the theory. Sadly, as I understand, the terrain isn't the best for fossilization to occur.

@Ozraptor4 Год назад

@@relwalretep Tasmania has an great Plio-Pleistocene fossil record from swamp (Mowbray) and cave deposits (Mt Cripps, Warreen, Bone Cave, Titan's Shelter). Best Zygomaturus skeletons come from Tasmania.

@eumesmo1208 Год назад

You should make an ‘evolution of capybaras' video

@kickuchiyo8586 Год назад

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-flD9BCke3TA.html

@maggiiopgott8975 Год назад

My excitement is immensely great and my day is made!!!

@Nathran13 Год назад

love your channel

@kuitaranheatmorus9932 Год назад

This is my new favorite and I'm glad it exist :3 Also hope y'all have a great day

@alexandrbatora9674 Год назад

Wow, this Friday evening will be nice!

@yassifieddino1792 Год назад

The fact that a stork as tall as human and bigger then komodo dragon lizards are extinct makes me sad. 😔

@Achilles_Heelys Год назад

@8:10 I think it’s also worth noting how respiration in varanids also contributes a large part to their ability to compete in mammalian dominated niches compared to other squamates.

@MisfortunateJustice Год назад

Thank you for this!

@charlesseiderman29 Год назад

Extremely informative...

@thekingwalrusc4026 Год назад

Great video, learned a lot about monitor lizards👍🏻👍🏻

@renacleerican7824 7 дней назад

It is a priviliege to be on the same earth of such mythical, creatures: they are absolutely gorgeous.

@davidf2281 Год назад

@shawnohagan5503 Год назад

Great video

@edwardgilmour9013 Год назад

well written and researched.

@veggieboyultimate Год назад

To think there used to be giant lizards all over the pacific islands, how cool that be if they were still around today?

@celtofcanaanesurix2245 Год назад

it'd be terrifying, but cool

@UnwantedGhost1 Год назад

Hopefully Komodo Dragons doesn't go extinct by 2100. No more, humanity.

@sonnyalan9605 Год назад

A world-renowned Komodo dragon expert was interviewed in one of the best Bob & Ray sketches, which you can hear on RU-vid.

@golemtheory2218 Год назад

I live in Oz, yet still it blows me away. Near Naracoorte in South Australia, a cave full of megafauna bones was found in the 1980s, apex predators noy unlike placental bears, tigers and lions, but all marsupial. Wtf.

@chaoticdusk7076 Год назад

There's something very pleasing about knowing that even monitor lizards pancake like my bearded dragon. The term pancake is referring to how they will lay down with all their legs stretched out around them.

@carbon_no6 Год назад

I remember when I was in grade school this one kid ended up writing a report on Komodo Dragons: given their typical length and weight you’d assume it would be evident that they wouldn’t be able to survive strictly eating insects… as that’s not the case because they eat a lot of meat. The kid that did the report falsely stated the aforementioned insect “fact” and when I corrected him on it, he became extremely defensive. Not my fault he was the idiot that didn’t research correctly. It’s still makes me half-smile thinking back to when it was assumed that Komodo Dragons used bacteria in their saliva as a hunting tactic.. relatively recent discovery corrected that and identified that it’s actually venom. Crazy.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

It's not venom, it's a number of lethal forms of bacteria. The saliva does have anticoagulant properties, though, by attacking the hemoglobin at the wound and if it gets carried along the bloodstream. That's the part that will bleed you out if the bacteria don't drop you first.

@ShadowLugia141 Год назад

@@mariastevens6406 it’s venom, they were found to possess large venom glands in their lower jaw. They don’t inject it of course, instead, more like a Gila Monster, they bite and let the venom ooze from the glands into the wound. Swabs taken of Komodo dragon saliva showed they possess the same bacteria found in other carnivores in scavengers, there’s nothing special there.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@ShadowLugia141 nothing special, I'd love to see you take a bite lol. So they do classify it as venom then. Interesting. Sounds similar to that of the monkey tailed lizard, then.

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

There's a big push these days to claim EVERYTHING has venom. Venom is derived from saliva, do apparently having saliva equals having venom.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@keithfaulkner6319 that's why I'm skeptical of the claim. Like, at which point is it actually venom and no longer simply saliva?

@acct5910 Год назад

Great stuff

@christopherellis2663 Год назад

Go Anna!

@milu3779 Год назад

This was a wonderful complement to the latest Common Descent podcast episode about monitor lizards =)

@all3ykat79 Год назад

Yaya I haven't seen a post from u in ages

@bigred8438 Год назад

excellent.

@krishnak2432 Год назад

Man I miss the mysterious background score on your videos. It used to give prehistoric feel while watching and listening to your videos.

@JohnDrummondPhoto Год назад

Australasia is, or was, a haven for giant animals of all stripes. Giant monitors. Giant kangaroos. Giant wombats. Giant thylacenes. Then man came along and effed it all up. Another fun fact: it's my understanding that mosasaurs are considered true lizards, albeit fully aquatic, with evolutionary ties to both monitors and snakes. Some of them took gigantism to the next level. I'd like to see a video about those connections.

@astick5249 Год назад

A big factor to the extinctions in Australia may have been climate change actually

@fuckugplus Год назад

awww a Richardson ground squirrel at 4:49

@dodorik7114 Год назад

awesome

@alexanderseaman9799 Год назад

This stuff is all amazing, but I'd recommend making more videos about creatures that weren't/aren't tetropods or fish. There's probably an equally insane amount of strange evolution in arthropods and invertebrates as in strange reptiles, like the Komodo Dragon.

@maddoxking9384 Год назад

Please do the evolution of moles, the small burrowing mammals pleaseeeeeee

@eljanrimsa5843 Год назад

I think we have to wait 50 years before that gets sorted out.

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

Omg they're so cute them and shrews

@quinndenver4075 Год назад

@@mariastevens6406 bro they’re fken nasty 😂. What are you on about

@mariastevens6406 Год назад

@@quinndenver4075 exactly what I said, sis

@quinndenver4075 Год назад

@@mariastevens6406 what? you said they cute, i said they ugly

@stax6092 Год назад

Awesome.

@johanliebert6785 Год назад

Could you please add english subtitles for non native speakers?

@BonaparteBardithion Год назад

It would also be greatly appreciated by the hard of hearing.

@keithfaulkner6319 Год назад

You can usually make your phone add subtitles on its own, whether or not the show does.

@111jkjk Год назад

Yeah the goanna that lives in my backyard indeed is surprisingly quick

@anyascelticcreations Год назад

Wow, that last comment about their having been an average sized lizard that just happened to have survived until now really hit home. Not that I haven't imagined a world of giant dinosaurs. But somehow thinking of a time when these guys were average just makes it feel more real. And more connected to now.

@bounce9568 Год назад

Yoooooooo moth light gaming

@daniell1483 Год назад

Komodo dragons are one of my favorite reptiles, and definitely my favorite lizard. It is interesting to imagine how the world used to be with Komodo dragons being considered average sized at best, probably a bit below average!