The Evolution of Komodo Dragons
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2022
- 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:
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www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
www.jstor.org/stable/3893395
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.
And a hobbit sitting nearby watching.
Tbh the lizards prob also hunted our hominid cousins.
@@evelynlamoy8483 while fighting off giant storks like the tales about Pygmys told by the ancient Greeks...
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).
No such thing as evolution.
I would say being the last surviving giant lizards is more intimidating than if it was island gigantism.
i dont think they need to be any more intimidating😅
If you understand how they work, they are more terrifying than crocs.
@@andrewblake2254 Its a matter of perspective really.
@@concept5631 no they'll hunt you like a horror movie fashion walking around with a single cut
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.
Terrifyingly they're products of the opposite. Island Dwarfism. The largest lizard alive is a dwarf.
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.
@@bkjeong4302 holy shit, even more reasons for me to love this animal.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
@@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 UA-cam videos of Komodo dragons? Plenty of videos of them actively hunting deer and eating them alive.
@@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.
I hope these relics of the past continue to thrive, and appreciate every day their species has survived.
Same
Yes, I'm sure the lizards are quite thankful for not being utterly wiped out by humans. Yet.
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
They've been persistent so far, but they're threatened by rising sea levels and illegal activity.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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
@@ekosubandie2094 so sambar deer also recently introduced in those island? Interesting
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!
Woh, I didn't know that. That's wild.
They also have a higher metabolic rate then other reptiles.
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.
Today I learned that, as a person with asthma, I can relate to lizards more than I expected 😅
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.
Whenever I see a Moth Light Media upload, my day gets a little better.
So, Dragon, Giant Birds, Elephant and Hobbit. Flores basically are real life middle-earth.
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.
Yup
@@andrewsuryali8540 Can imagine the dwarf-elephants swimming and tugging the hobbits rafts from island to island, btw perfect explanation how they came there.
It's literally located in the middle of the earth map 😁
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.
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!
I often wondered why Komodos didn't 'last' in Australia or even create a presence in Papua New Guinea, a literal reptile paradise.
@@nickmitsialis Probably because early human settlers in Papua New Guinea deemed the komodo dragon too dangerous and eradicated them to extinction.
They are the most badass yea. Unfortunely only the second coolest name after the Gila Monster.
@@zegion8203 darn that 'impact on megafauna'. If the dinosaurs lived into 'human/hominid' time, they probably would have been hunted to extinction too.
@@nickmitsialis I think saw somewhere humans are a major reason they didn't last in Australia just like mammoths.
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 🤷♀️
That's so cool. There's a zoo by me that has I think three or four Komodo dragons.
@@BestAnswer12549 The London Zoo had a couple when I went. Saw one basking under a heat lamp from afar.
@@alexrennison8070 I wonder if anybody was able to breed Komodo dragons?
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
@@ahsanvirk130 wow do you have a link or remember what year it was? I want to look that up lol
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.
tell me more please
@@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.
I think I learned more from your comment than this video.
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...
@@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.
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
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.
They inspired the tale of St, George's dragon
"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
White America's view of black people
@@CNYKnifeNerd lol
@@CNYKnifeNerd westerner's view of islam.
I have so much respect for Komodo Dragons
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
Makes me think of when bears stand on their 2 back legs
Shucks, now I have to go find videos of parenti. One more thing on my list of searches, thanks a lot. Grin.
Paleosaniwa looks like a scaled up version of a Gila Monster
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.
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.
When I saw one in real life, I realized I was the prey, should it haven gotten loose.
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.
This might be can also applied to Non-Avian theropod dinosaur
Hello made it to this video super early haha have a good weekend everyone
Flores was an incredible hotspot for weird evolution...
I think they’re fascinating, and scary all at the same time.
I just think they're neat
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.
I was just discussing about the power of Komodo dragons with some people for the last three days lol. What a coincidence.
Komodo dragons are the closest real life version of an East Asian dragon!
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
Yep, because they're cannibalistic as a species.
@@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.
@@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.
@@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.
@@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 🤣😅🤣😅
Just turned my awful day into a good one seeing this so fresh
Komodo dragons are such fascinating animals
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.
I wasn't scared of komodo dragons before this but after learning their top speed is 20mph I'm terrified.
When Steve Irwin himself was very, very careful arouund them, I knew there was "Daenja!"
I believe he was talking about Perentie monitors there. Still pretty intense though!
@@robinsonrom reminds me of Japanese Show
I doubt they ever get that fast
@@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.
Awww yes! I'm so glad you're doing something about Komodo Dragons! They're among my favorite animals, alongside the tiger!
love your content so much, thank you for what you do. i would really love another video on insects or any invertebrates in general!
Could you imagine if we brought Komodo Dragons back to Australia the same way we did for the Tasmanian Devil?
I'll do you one better: the megalania
I cant imagine anything that would turn every Australian up north into a murderous hunter overnight more quickly.
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)
@@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?
@@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.
Best I've seen in a long time! You have done your homework, good job!
Great video. I enjoy your content. More people should see this type of stuff.
4:05 Made me crack a smile. Unexpected
I agree with this topic
always love your videos! keep it up man x
Ah yes the evolution of my mascot animal
Mmmyess im always so happy when you post, your videos are great!!
Great video as always, love your content 👏👏
Your videos bring me so much joy! Keep up the great content!
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
well I mean we found komodo dragon fossils in java meaning they coexisted and competed with placental mammals like tigers, dholes, and leopards
@@Bigazoa11 well they're not there now, so apparently not well enough.
@@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
@@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.
@@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
Very interesting. Its been a while since i've learned something new.
great video, thank you!
Great video! Love the channel! Watching in the great state of Alaska!
Always great videos mate
Love your vids, they are always so insightful and relaxing!
These videos are always so very interesting to watch & learn. Thank you.
This channel is fantastic
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.
I love this channel. Awesome little videos.
Superb video as always, MLM!
You posted on my bday! I love you!
Love the topic!
Love your channel and content. A really interesting video!
Great vid!
Next talk about their relatives, the largest true lizards of all, the mosasaurs.
They're more closely related to snakes, well snakes evolved from lizards too, so I guess fair point
Mosasaurs are like ancient cousins to modern lizards, since they have no modern descendants
Really interesting video!
Wasn't aware of monitor's improved cardiovascular system - very cool. Great vid!
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? 🤔
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.
@@Ozraptor4 That's the theory. Sadly, as I understand, the terrain isn't the best for fossilization to occur.
@@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.
You should make an ‘evolution of capybaras' video
ua-cam.com/video/flD9BCke3TA/v-deo.html
My excitement is immensely great and my day is made!!!
love your channel
This is my new favorite and I'm glad it exist :3
Also hope y'all have a great day
Wow, this Friday evening will be nice!
The fact that a stork as tall as human and bigger then komodo dragon lizards are extinct makes me sad. 😔
@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.
Thank you for this!
Extremely informative...
Great video, learned a lot about monitor lizards👍🏻👍🏻
It is a priviliege to be on the same earth of such mythical, creatures: they are absolutely gorgeous.
__
Great video
well written and researched.
To think there used to be giant lizards all over the pacific islands, how cool that be if they were still around today?
it'd be terrifying, but cool
Hopefully Komodo Dragons doesn't go extinct by 2100. No more, humanity.
A world-renowned Komodo dragon expert was interviewed in one of the best Bob & Ray sketches, which you can hear on UA-cam.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
There's a big push these days to claim EVERYTHING has venom.
Venom is derived from saliva, do apparently having saliva equals having venom.
@@keithfaulkner6319 that's why I'm skeptical of the claim. Like, at which point is it actually venom and no longer simply saliva?
Great stuff
Go Anna!
This was a wonderful complement to the latest Common Descent podcast episode about monitor lizards =)
Yaya I haven't seen a post from u in ages
excellent.
Man I miss the mysterious background score on your videos. It used to give prehistoric feel while watching and listening to your videos.
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.
A big factor to the extinctions in Australia may have been climate change actually
awww a Richardson ground squirrel at 4:49
awesome
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.
Please do the evolution of moles, the small burrowing mammals pleaseeeeeee
I think we have to wait 50 years before that gets sorted out.
Omg they're so cute them and shrews
@@mariastevens6406 bro they’re fken nasty 😂. What are you on about
@@quinndenver4075 exactly what I said, sis
@@mariastevens6406 what? you said they cute, i said they ugly
Awesome.
Could you please add english subtitles for non native speakers?
It would also be greatly appreciated by the hard of hearing.
You can usually make your phone add subtitles on its own, whether or not the show does.
Yeah the goanna that lives in my backyard indeed is surprisingly quick
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.
Yoooooooo moth light gaming
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!
Now I need to hear more about thylacoleo!
Kinda disappointed that Mosasaurus wasn’t mentioned in the history of of monitor lizards