# How big are Komodo Dragons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541 "2017-03-06T14:26:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rick\_Sanchez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rick\_Sanchez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/1 "2017-03-06T14:26:48Z")
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: ```auto 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? ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/2 "2017-03-06T14:28:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/3 "2017-03-06T14:48:31Z")
[Alan Davies] The Blue Whale! [/Alan Davies] ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/4 "2017-03-06T15:00:03Z")
Besides for what Teuton said, your numbers for anacondas are also way off. Per [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_anaconda) > [@](#): > > The green anaconda is the world’s heaviest and one of the world’s longest snakes, reaching 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long.[2] More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m (16.4 ft), with the females, at around a mean length of 4.6 m (15.1 ft), being generally much larger in adulthood than the male, which averages around 3 m (9.8 ft).[3][4][5] Weights are less well studied, though will reportedly range from 30 to 70 kg (66 to 154 lb) in an average-range adult. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/5 "2017-03-06T15:10:58Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/6 "2017-03-06T15:25:51Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Besides for what Teuton said, your numbers for anacondas are also way off. Per [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_anaconda) Maybe the OP would post some pictures of his anaconda. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/7 "2017-03-06T15:27:06Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/8 "2017-03-06T15:51:34Z")
Where can these creatures be found? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/9 "2017-03-06T16:07:55Z")
Bats aren’t bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/10 "2017-03-06T16:16:11Z")
Wait, they aren’t _commode_ dragons? This will seriously change my bathroom habits. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/11 "2017-03-06T16:19:37Z")
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!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/12 "2017-03-06T16:34:36Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Where can these creatures be found? The island of Komodo (part of Indonesia). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/13 "2017-03-06T16:39:23Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Bats aren’t bugs. Look, who’s giving this report? ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/14 "2017-03-06T16:40:01Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Where can these creatures be found? They find you. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/15 "2017-03-06T16:45:31Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > They find you. So, Russia? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/16 "2017-03-06T17:17:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The island of Komodo (part of Indonesia). Also, on the Indonesian islands of Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Padar. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/17 "2017-03-06T17:55:39Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > Snakes aren’t lizards. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Lizards are all reptiles with overlapping scales (Lepidosauria) other than snakes and turtles. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/18 "2017-03-06T18:23:30Z")
Now tell them about the legless lizards. That aren’t snakes. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/19 "2017-03-06T18:28:54Z")
**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. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/20 "2017-03-06T18:29:02Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Now tell them about the legless lizards. That aren’t snakes. Also [the legless amphibians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian) that aren’t snakes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541.md?page=2)