How big are Komodo Dragons?

Factual Questions
1

Today’s Google doodle is an interactive quiz about Komodo Dragons. The first question is: “True or False: Komodo Dragons are the largest lizards on the planet.” I figured it was the anaconda so I clicked false, but apparently that was incorrect.

Now, far be it from me to argue with Google, but I compared stats and:




             Komodo Dragon               Anaconda

Max size:       3m                       8.8m
Weight:       150lbs                     550lbs

It seems clear to me that Anaconda > [sub]Komodo Dragon[/sub]. So why does Google insist on the opposite?

2

Snakes aren’t lizards.

EDIT: The largest reptiles are saltwater crocodiles. Even among snakes, there seems to be a bit of controversy, with Burmese Pythons also being huge.

3

[Alan Davies] The Blue Whale! [/Alan Davies]

4

Besides for what Teuton said, your numbers for anacondas are also way off. Per Wiki

5

Lizards are all reptiles with overlapping scales (Lepidosauria) other than snakes and turtles. So snakes aren’t lizards because lizards are defined as not being snakes. So the anaconda isn’t a lizard.

6

Maybe the OP would post some pictures of his anaconda.

7

Then there’s my work on behalf of the International Komodo Dragon Foundation. To protect the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest living lizard, a ferocious carnivore, found on the steep-sloped island of Komodo in the lesser Sunda chain of the Indonesian Archipelago and the nearby islands of Rinja, Padar, and Flores.

8

Where can these creatures be found?

9

Bats aren’t bugs.

10

Wait, they aren’t commode dragons?

This will seriously change my bathroom habits.

11

I got a chuckle one day at the San Diego Zoo’s dragon enclosure when a woman exclaimed to her child, “Look, it’s a giant monitoring lizard!”

12

The island of Komodo (part of Indonesia).

13

Look, who’s giving this report?

14

They find you.

15

So, Russia?

16

Also, on the Indonesian islands of Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Padar.

17

Close, but not exactly true. Rhynchocephalians (represented today only by tuataras) are also lepidosaurs but not lizards, while turtles are not lepidosaurs.

While it’s legitimate to distinguish between lizards and snakes in a popular sense, it should also be pointed out that from a cladistic point of view snakes are just one kind of lizard. Snakes are more closely related to some kinds of lizards than those lizards are related to other lizards, making “lizard” a polyphyletic group in the taxonomic sense.

18

Now tell them about the legless lizards. That aren’t snakes.

19

Colibri + Fotheringay-Phipps give the correct answer I believe. Rick Sanchez you can get a technical pass on the lizard/snake thing as Colibri noted ( depending on which systematist you query ), but google was lying to you. There probably has never been an anaconda that reached 550 lbs - that is just a fantasy estimate for a fantasy length that has never been verified and probably never will be.

The heaviest ever verified Komodo dragon weighed 366 lbs ( including a full stomach, which probably added a lot ), which beats the largest verified anaconda at 215 lbs.

20

Also the legless amphibians that aren’t snakes.