Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon
Black and bony of hide, with a long, double-forked, yellow tongue that flicks in and out like a flame, the Komodo "dragon" (Varanus komodoensis) of the Lesser Sundas seems the progenitor of all the fire-breathing dragons known in legends. Its size is awe-inspiring: this largest of all lizards reaches 12 feet in length and a weight of 300 pounds. Where it came from nobody knows; it lives today on only three small islands, where its species thrived undiscovered by man until a bare half-century ago. Volcanic in origin, this group emerged in the beginning of the Pleistocene, and it is possible that the Komodo dragons' ancestors swam there from adjoining islands and then, kings of their tiny and isolated realms, developed their giant forms.
