# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/41 "2017-03-07T18:35:59Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Also, monitors have a specialized anatomy including an effectively four-chambered heart that gives them greater aerobic capacity and allows them to be more active than other lizards. Monitors are more “mammalian” than other reptiles. Interesting! That makes [mosasaurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosasaur) (basically monitor lizards adapted to live exclusively in the ocean) make more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/42 "2017-03-07T18:57:51Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Maybe the OP would post some pictures of his anaconda. Careful! This isn’t _that_ kind of forum. ---
**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 7, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/43 "2017-03-07T21:22:23Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > He might get a painful bite, but someone’s taking the picture, so he’s clearly not alone and would have immediate assistance if the dragon attacked. What if it used its fire breath? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/44 "2017-03-07T21:36:23Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > [Komodo Dragon in close proximity to an adult human](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3e/e6/74/3ee6744b8503ef22cddeb2e76decb4eb.jpg) > There are some images on Google that make the dragon seem much larger but they are probably “forced perspective” photography. I dunno, it looks like a particularly large dragon, but not unrealistically so. I’ve seen lots of monitor lizards on Java, and Komodo dragons on Rinci. To me, the photo looks reasonable. As to the behavior of the guy, what he’s doing is probably unwise, but if the dragon is sated after a big meal, it is probably pretty logy. And if this guy is one of the handlers/tour guides who work on Rinci and Komodo, he’s probably very familiar with their behavior. On Rinci (and probably Komodo too, but I don’t know because we didn’t go there), you can hike all around the island with a guide, and see lots of dragons pretty close up along the way. The guides carry big forked sticks just in case, but nothing untoward happened while we were there and I suspect that’s the norm. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/45 "2017-03-07T21:58:58Z")
Yeah, but there’re other differences between glass lizards and true snake, like the latter having a longer body and shorter tail in comparison to the former (the cloaca in GL is found nearer to the center; in snakes, it’s nearer to the “end”). And, y’know, the having eyelids thing. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/46 "2017-03-07T22:05:18Z")
Giant monitors might have coexisted on Flores Island with miniature humans, although I guess the whole _Homo floresiensis_ hypothesis is still controversial. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/47 "2017-03-07T22:33:18Z")
They’re about yea big, but only this tall. ---
**Author:** ![DtypeJag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@DtypeJag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DtypeJag)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/48 "2017-03-07T22:51:53Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > **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. If we are talking about the world’s largest living reptile I’ve heard that Leatherback sea turtles can be up to 1000lbs? But probably one of the Crockagators would be larger. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/49 "2017-03-07T23:10:41Z")
I was on Komodo last year and saw a number of the dragons. They were mostly sheltering from the sun. Their colouring works surprisingly well as camouflage. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/50 "2017-03-07T23:26:16Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > This is kind of like the monkeys and apes thing where pedants used to be able to “correct” people who referred to apes as monkeys. As it turns out, cladistically speaking apes are just one kind of monkey (being more closely related to Old World Monkey than the latter are to New World Monkeys). If snakes are just legless lizards, there isn’t too much justification for insisting that other kinds of legless lizards aren’t snakes. All Champagnes are sparkling wines, not all sparkling wines are Champagne. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/51 "2017-03-08T00:36:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Tom Tildrum** : > > What if it used its fire breath? I don’t know about fire, but I’d guess that a monitor lizard’s halitosis would be bad enough to qualify as a breath weapon. Now that we’ve established that the “lizards” aren’t a proper clade, what about the fragile-tailed lizards (a category which I assume doesn’t include the Komodo or Gila)? You know, the ones whose tails break off easily so they can escape predators (including glass snakes, hence the “glass” part of their name). Are they a clade? ---
**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 8, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/52 "2017-03-08T01:56:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now that we’ve established that the “lizards” aren’t a proper clade, what about the fragile-tailed lizards (a category which I assume doesn’t include the Komodo or Gila)? You know, the ones whose tails break off easily so they can escape predators (including glass snakes, hence the “glass” part of their name). Are they a clade? No. In fact, the propensity for tail loss varies even within a family. Caudal autotomy occurs commonly in the Gekkonidae (geckos), Anguids (which includes glass snakes/lizards), Teiidae (whiptails), Scincidae (skinks), and Iguanids (iguanas). It does not occur in Gila Monsters or monitors. ---
**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 8, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/53 "2017-03-08T16:18:26Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > If we are talking about the world’s largest living reptile I’ve heard that Leatherback sea turtles can be up to 1000lbs? But probably one of the Crockagators would be larger. Saltwater crocodiles regularly exceed 2,000 lbs., and there are fairly convincing estimates of 4,000 lb. salties based on skull measurements. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/54 "2017-03-10T22:48:26Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If snakes are just legless lizards, there isn’t too much justification for insisting that other kinds of legless lizards aren’t snakes. Except that all snakes are of the suborder [Serpentes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake), and have characteristics besides being legless reptiles that are different than the other types of legless lizards, which fit into other suborders of [Squamata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squamata). I suppose we could call them “serpents”, as distinct from “snakes”, and let any legless lizard be a snake. Currently, _lizards_ is a polyphyletic group but _snakes_ is not. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/55 "2017-03-11T15:46:06Z")
And you can’t even define “snakes” as being “legless lizards”, because some snakes aren’t quite completely legless. ---
**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 11, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/56 "2017-03-11T16:05:37Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Except that all snakes are of the suborder [Serpentes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake), and have characteristics besides being legless reptiles that are different than the other types of legless lizards, which fit into other suborders of [Squamata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squamata). I suppose we could call them “serpents”, as distinct from “snakes”, and let any legless lizard be a snake. I’ve been talking about the popular use of the term, not the scientific one. This would be just more linguistic hair-splitting on the basis of cladistics of the type I’ve been criticizing. If you’re discussing herpetology, fine, you can talk about Serpentes along with other clades of Squamata. The fact that Serpentes is a clade within Squamata doesn’t require one not to call other legless lizards snakes. > [@](#): > > Currently, _lizards_ is a polyphyletic group but _snakes_ is not. Right, but if you recognize snakes linguistically there would be justification to also recognize around 10 separate clades of lizards that would be of equivalent taxonomic rank. ---
**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 11, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/57 "2017-03-11T16:09:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And you can’t even define “snakes” as being “legless lizards”, because some snakes aren’t quite completely legless. I would’t consider that having some internal vestiges (and in some cases external spurs) qualify as having legs. But yes, that distinction is not as clear-cut as some other features of skeletal and other anatomy. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/58 "2017-03-14T21:06:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Wait, they aren’t _commode_ dragons? > > This will seriously change my bathroom habits. A while back, Old Spice put out a series of deodorants named after exotic islands. Komodo was one of them. The commercial had their “manly black guy” spokesman riding two Komodo dragons like a trick rider. It disappeared from the lineup before the rest, in spite of having what I thought was the best scent. I figure the reason was “Who names a deodorant after a place that sounds like ‘commode’?” Actually, my first thought was that some Marketing “genius” needed to remove their dorsal organ cluster from their aboral orifice and think for a change. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/59 "2017-03-16T01:52:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I’ve been talking about the popular use of the term, not the scientific one. My point was that there are characteristics that set Serpentes apart from other “legless lizards”. But you are correct that those characteristics are not as obvious as major structural changes like no legs. I think I need to backtrack on this one. Science seems to be full of situations where they take a common word and apply it in a scientific manner as part of a system, and then the definition of the word has to adjust to fit the scientific application as the system gets modified to fit new information. For example, the highly controversial discussion about how to define “planet”. Or the excitement we all feel when we try to decide if birds are dinosaurs. Or do we categorize sharks and dolphins and whales as “fish”. I suppose in the same vein, we can differentiate between the scientific category of “serpents” and the common use of the word “snake”. ---
**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 16, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541/60 "2017-03-16T02:07:42Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I think I need to backtrack on this one. Science seems to be full of situations where they take a common word and apply it in a scientific manner as part of a system, and then the definition of the word has to adjust to fit the scientific application as the system gets modified to fit new information. That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m objecting to (and I’m a scientist). It’s OK to have a popular definition of a word, and a more restrictive scientific one, but that doesn’t make the original popular definition wrong. There’s no reason to change the popular definition of a word just because scientists use it in a different way. > [@](#): > > I suppose in the same vein, we can differentiate between the scientific category of “serpents” and the common use of the word “snake”. But there’s no reason to restrict the perfectly good English word serpents that way. Scientists can always just say they are talking about Serpentes when they want to talk abou that clade. Non-scientists can call any legless Squamata a snake, regardless of what clade it’s in. The terms “frog” and “toad” have no scientific meaning, nor do “turtles” and “tortoises” represent clades. They refer to appearance and way of life, not taxonomy. There’s no reason snake and lizard shouldn’t be used the same way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-are-komodo-dragons/781541.md?page=4)