Posted on 05/20/2009 10:20:21 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The Komodo dragon is not just the largest living lizard, but also one of the most venomous creatures on Earth, scientists have discovered.
The carnivorous animal, which can tear its prey apart, kills with venom rather than bacteria-laden bites, as scientists had always believed.
The dragons, which grow to a length of about 10ft and weigh about 130lb (60kg) are vicious predators that prey on animals as large as deer.
They attack their victim by biting and tearing at it repeatedly, then wait as it dies a lingering death. Scientists always believed that because Komodos also fed on carrion, their mouths must teem with bacteria and that the germs infected their victims, killing them slowly.
Magnetic resonance imaging scans have shown, however, that Komodos have glands in their mouths that produce venom similar to that of many snakes.
The lizard’s sharp, serrated teeth open up wounds into which the venom flows from the gland that runs along the jawline. The venom acts as an anticoagulant, increasing the blood flow and reducing blood pressure, sending the victim into shock. The victim’s blood cannot clot and it bleeds to death.
The venom makes the animals formidable killers even though their bite is much weaker than that of a crocodile. “The teeth and the venom work in perfect harmony,” said Bryan Fry, the head of the international team whose research on the lizard’s killing powers is published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It works as well as a poisoned dagger,” the venom expert from Melbourne University told The Times. “It is an amazing killing machine.”
Komodos rarely attack humans although an eight-year-old Indonesian boy was attacked and killed in a park on Komodo Island two years ago. This year a Komodo stalked a poacher for several days
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Coming to an episode of CSI...Soon!
So if its venom and not simply bacteria, why have humans bit by these animals died from heart failure years after their initial bite? I suspect the venom may be the cause of rapid death, but survivors who have died years later of heart failure I suspect may be due to infection.
Of course, I’m not studying this.
Bottom line: yer close enough to be bitten by a 10 foot lizard, you got problems.
I feel the same about Komodo’s as I do rattlesnakes, the only good one is a dead one.
We're just now finding out Komodo dragons are venomous? and that only after an MRI?
Seems like kind of a major oversight.
You beat me to it. The National Academy of Sciences has also probably weighed in on the Al Gore side of global warming, and my thoughts were the same as yours. We've known about this "terrible lizard" for decades, and they just now figure out it is poisonous???
Not to mention, likely spent millions studying the mating habits of the snail-darter fish, and just now figured out the worlds largest monitor is venomous? Egad.
Scientists Reveal Venomous Bite Of Komodo Dragon
redorbit.com/news/science | 19 May 2009
Posted on 05/19/2009 5:52:06 PM PDT by JoeProBono
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2254331/posts
“They attack their victim by biting and tearing at it repeatedly, then wait as it dies a lingering death.”
The same could be said of the American MSM.
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