http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090519/sc_afp/scienceanimalkomodoaustralia_20090519073836
As if the bacteria, teeth and claws weren't enough.
As if the bacteria, teeth and claws weren't enough.
Quite possibly. But the article doesn't say if it's a different type of venom than what is in other reptiles and insects.Induces a drop in blood-pressure, I see...very interesting news for people with hypertension. I wonder if the venom could be altered or worked on in such a way to remove its more lethal side-effects and produce a panacea for high blood pressure? A silver lining, maybe...?
Induces a drop in blood-pressure, I see...very interesting news for people with hypertension. I wonder if the venom could be altered or worked on in such a way to remove its more lethal side-effects and produce a panacea for high blood pressure? A silver lining, maybe...?
Quite possibly. But the article doesn't say if it's a different type of venom than what is in other reptiles and insects.
As dangerous as those things are, they are one of my favorite reptiles. Those, crocs and the Galapagos turtles/tortoses are the closest link IMO we have to dinosaurs.
All of them? I know what you're saying, but I shudder to think such creatures as a stegosauras, a brontosaurus and a triceratops were birds.I thought the closest thing to dinosaurs were birds! Dinosaurs were not reptiles.
Yep, biologically closer to chickens than 'gators, Mikey.
I just think komodo dragons are beautiful though.
Yeah, I'm not a dinosaur expert, so I'll shut up. ;-)
Wait a minute. How do you mean they are too slow? They can run down a human. They can run over 12 mph in short bursts.Simple. They cannot sustain high activity for a long time. Overall they tend to be too slow to overpower and kill prey effectively. Poisoning them and then wait until they die appears to be more energy-efficient. It is a similar strategy as employed by the gila monster (pretty stupid name, if you ask me).
Good way of putting it.Ow, and btw. according to cladistic systematics, birds are reptiles, just like dinosaurs.
More precisely: bird evolved from dinosaurs, which evolved from archosaurs, which evolved from reptiles. In other words, the class reptilia encompasses dinosaurs as well as birds. Therefore the statement that birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than reptiles does not make sense as both fall under the class of reptiles.
What you may mean, however is that birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than, e.g. turtles (which belong to the Testudines). In fact, bird are the last descendants of the dinosaurs, so to speak.
But humans are capable of running at that pace for miles.Wait a minute. How do you mean they are too slow? They can run down a human. They can run over 12 mph in short bursts.
What does that have to do with komodos being able to run down a human over short distances?But humans are capable of running at that pace for miles.
It costs humans quite a bit of energy going in short bursts too.That is actually the point. The can in a burst run towards the prey and bite it, but it will cost a lot of energy for them to prevail in an extended fight,
MARATHON runners who train for years might be able to keep up that pace, but most humans cannot. See how long you can sprint for, before you keel over from exhaustion.But humans are capable of running at that pace for miles
Yeah but I doubt cheetahs have the sluggish metabolism that Komodos do, and the cheetah scenario more correlates with humans than komodos.Actually an interesting counter-example are cheetahs. Extremely fast but they only got a window of a couple of minutes to chase down their prey (for comodo warans it is probably even less). However if they were poisonous they need just a good bite in the ankles and wait till they die (and they need the olfactory senses of a waran to find the carcass).