Origin of Komodo dragon revealed - Fossils in Australia date from 300,000 to roughly 4 million years

Origin of Komodo dragon revealed - Fossils in Australia date from 300,000 to roughly 4 million years ago

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Dragons may come from the land Down Under.

Scientists now find that the world’s largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia.

For the last 4 million years, Australia has been home to the world's largest lizards, including the 16-foot-long giant (5 meters) called Megalania, once the world's largest terrestrial lizard but which died out some 40,000 years ago.

"Now we can say Australia was also

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First off, interesting video on the link
Virgin komodo gives birth

Jan. 25: A komodo dragon becomes both mom and dad to five newborns, without help from a male partner. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown has the story.

Anyhow, so I always thought that the komodo dragon was a descendant of an even smaller dragon, but now it seems it's actually the opposite.

I find island gigantism/dwarfism one of the most fascinating things on this planet.

"It's a perfect place to see how life adapts and evolves in response to major environmental impacts, like sea level change, climatic changes, catastrophes — tsunamis and volcanic eruptions — plus each island has received modern humans at one time or another," he explained. "What were their impacts and how did species cope? This will be our Rosetta Stone when understanding how species will respond to future climate change."

Yes... Fascinating it is!

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