Posted on 05/19/2009 5:52:06 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Australian researchers have discovered what makes the Komodo dragon’s bite so deadly for its prey.
Scientists previously considered that the world’s largest lizard’s mouth held deadly bacteria that stopped its victims’ blood from clotting. Walter Auffenberg put that theory forward in 1981.
But lead researcher Bryan Fry used magnetic resonance imagery to show that the deadly lizard packs a venomous bite, as seen through its venom gland with ducts that lead to their teeth.
Fry used 3-D computer imaging to compare the Komodo’s bite with the bite of the Australian saltwater crocodile, which has a skull of comparable size. His team found that the Komodo’s bite is only one-sixth as powerful as that of the crocodile.
Imaging revealed that the Komodo used a pulling maneuver similar to the motion of the bite of a shark or saber cat.
The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that other venomous lizards, including the Gila monster, were part of the same family as Komodo dragons. Additionally, venomous lizards and snakes appear to have descended from common origins.
David Attenborough, you lied to us!! What next? the Flying Frog is really the “falling with style” frog?
I AM SHOCKED, FELLOW FREEPERS! HOW CAN THE SCIENCE COMMUNITY BE SO WRONG AND BE SO RIGHT ON THINGS LIKE...oh um...GLOBAL WARMING? As a science professional and established investigator, I do apologize for the error of my colleagues
A number of years ago Sharon Stone decided to give her husband the ‘gift’ of a private visit with a Komodo Dragon at a zoo..
Bronstein apparently wore some white athletic shoes, which attracted the attention of the Komodo and it bit him badly.
You can find details quickly in a Google search about it.
OThuga’s relatives on parade.
They look like they are wearing chain mail suits. Really scary creaturesl
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Yeah - Bronstein - the genius
City dudes should stick with the monster sewer gators that live on big rats and little kittens
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There is no such thing as a harmless animal
I have seen very small young dairy heifers go after a small kid as if they were a Brahma Bull
They can quickly be seriously hurt
There was a good reason I wore steel-toed boots - and used them
[There was a good reason I wore steel-toed boots - and used them]
Lol, you liked ‘metal’, guns and boots!
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High thick engineer boots too
Otherwise - I would not have had a cute Coral Snake hatband and a dandy Diamondback Rattler belt
I think my computer needs a scan, running slow and tonight people were watching American Idol making a lighter crowd.
I have had many two foot coral snakes killed in my yard, they tend to move around in the spring and fall. I always used my bare hands to clean out my flower beds too!! I was lucky.
What a cute bunch. Probably taste like chicken.
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I have killed mucho bigger Coral Snakes than 2-footers!
We had lots of pasture and some deep tropical wooded areas too
Adjoining a waterway - so gators got right up in our pastures after hurricane flooding - Water Mocs too!
One killed here was written up in the newspaper and my children's doctor called me about it. She said they ‘chew’ and to tell the kids if they get bit to jerk it off of them.
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Yup —
They chew - nerve poison
Twenty minutes I have been told
Snakes usually avoided us as we walked in tall pasture grass
At night - Fridays with 6-8 hunters in a pasture - I’d say they were not out
Thankfully I’ve never had a rattlesnake in the pasture here, - that I knew of anyway! Water moccasins nearby at the creek.
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They used to lie out in the sun on the white rolled coral rock road that went out to our farm
Some huge rattlers
Stomp on the brakes to kill them - They just went off into an irrigation ditch
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Alexis Glick from FBC on with Hannity on FNC now - a late rerun
She is a squishy Socialist who loves Obama
I do not trust here or believe anything she says
I'm not familiar with Alexis Glick. No radio listening here and only Special Report and O’Reilly do I watch. Thus I do not know who many are.
There is a thread about Michelle being on the 100 most beautiful! I looked through the names and don't know who those girls are anymore since I don't go to movies or watch regular TV.
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