Douglas Burden organized an expedition to Komodo island, mainly because of the reports of Komodo dragons. A few collected skins of these lizards made their way to scientists, who were fascinated by the creatures' size. Komodo dragons were not documented by scientists until 1910.
Regardless of how they got that way, Komodo dragons are impressively large lizards. So, these scientists suggest that Komodo dragons are large simply because they are descended from large ancestors. One extinct species, the giant goanna, grew to 18 feet (5.5 m) and weighed 1,268 pounds (575 kg)! In fact, some of the mainland lizards were much larger. They point out that very large monitor lizards were already living on the mainland of Australia. some scientists think that Komodo dragons are NOT examples of island gigantism. In the absence of large predatory mammals, the smaller cold-blooded predators (such as lizards and snakes) can gradually become larger to fill that particular niche.īut.
Here's an explanation: small islands are usually devoid of large predatory mammals (often because small islands don't have enough food to support large warm-blooded predators that need more food than cold-blooded predators). There are hundreds of examples of island gigantism, including giant shrews and rats, kiwis and other flightless birds, and various reptiles. This is when animals isolated on islands tend to grow much larger than their relatives on the mainland.
First, some scientists say this is an example of island gigantism. There are two primary lines of thought regarding this. The most obvious amazing characteristic is their size.
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