Oct 10th, 2019: Komodo dragons have built-in armor

You know these beasts; they're the biggest lizards on the planet, they live on a few Indonesian islands, and they have no predators.

They're vicious carnivores and can kill a wild pig in seconds. They eat their catch by just tearing off large chunks of flesh with their huge powerful jaws.

And now, after modern imaging -- CT scanning -- it's found they have a built-in suit of armor, made of tiny bones.

These bones cover the dragons from head to tail, creating a “chain mail” that protects the giant predators. However, the armor raises a question: What does the world’s largest lizard – the dominant predator in its natural habitat – need protection from?

After scanning Komodo dragon specimens with high-powered X-rays, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin think they have an answer: other Komodo dragons.

That's right, these beasts are such assholes that they need one of nature's more remarkable forms of protection... against themselves.

The adult was well-equipped with armor, but it was completely absent in the baby. It’s a finding that suggests that the bony plates don’t appear until adulthood. And the only thing adult dragons need protection from is other dragons.

And us. Indonesia is limiting the number of tourists to Komodo Island, because the tourists keep stealing the lizards.

And they have septic bacteria in their saliva, right?

One scratch of the tooth and all they need to do is wait for you to die.

Yeah, they just wait around for you to die. Apex mammals give me a charge, these guys not so much.

In researching this IoTD, I learned that scientists figured out the Komodo bacteria idea is a myth. The bacteria in their mouths is pretty normal!

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-komodo-dragon-bite-saliva-01178.html

Damn you, Sir David!

Griff;1039783 wrote:

Yeah, they just wait around for you to die. Apex mammals give me a charge, these guys not so much.

Well it kind of reminds me of us. Aren't we designed to be endurance hunters that just follow our game for a thousand miles until it gets tired and we catch up to it?

I think our design was a little more flexible. We can do the African Wild Dog thing but also the chimp thing and the bear thing. We adapt to environments, the Swiss army knife of mammals.

We are adaptable physically, a little like dogs that way.

The explanation disturbs my notion that most reptiles, birds and mammals have the same skeleton bones.
I think this armor is better said to made of bony scales.
It is interesting that the really big mean SOB lizards were probably killed off by humans.