Thursday, March 18, 2010

VARANUS KOMODOENSIS

Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is a type of lizard found on the island of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami in central Indonesia. Varanidae family members, it is the largest lizard species are still living with an average length of 2 to 3 meters and weighing about 70 kg. Although Komodo dragons eat mostly carrion, they eat as they hunt prey including invertebrates, birds and mammals.


Mating occurs between May and June and eggs are laid in September. About twenty eggs are stored in abandoned nests and incubated for seven to eight months. It takes about three to five years for the dragon to reach adulthood and can live for fifty years. They are among the few vertebrate parthenogenesis, which is the way in which reproductive female Komodo telurmnya placed somewhere, while the brother was not there. However, parthenogenesis is found in other lizards.


Komodo discovered by Western scientists in 1910. Large size and a horrible reputation made popular fast dragon at the zoo. Komodo dragon in Indonesia are protected by law and made a national park, Komodo National Park is established to help protect them.


Evolution of the Komodo dragon lizard starts in Asia, who emigrated to Australia which occurred about 40 million years ago. At about 15 million years ago there was a collision between continental Australia and South-East Asia that resulted formed what is now called the Indonesian archipelago. It is estimated that the Komodo dragon appears there are about 4 million years ago, and differentiate themselves from their ancestors in Australia and expansion of territory to the island of Timor in the east. A significant decrease in sea surface in the last ice age and isolated on an island when the sea level has risen


In the wild, adult Komodo dragon usually weighs around 70 pounds, though specimens in captivity are often more severe. Komodo dragons have a tail as long as his body, and saliva that often colored blood, because her teeth almost entirely covered by gingival tissue that is naturally torn as when eating an animal. This creates an ideal culture for the bacteria that live in the mouth. It also has a very long yellow forked tongue. End of each leg there is a long curved claws.


Komodo less sensitive hearing / sharp despite having prominent ears. And could only hear between 400 and 2000 Hz. We even thought he was deaf when a study on the subject have shown that he has no reaction to sound or voices whispering half aloud. This theory is undermined when an employee of the London Zoo, Joan Proctor trained a specimen out of the park to feed his voice, even when he could not see.


This could see up to 300 meters, but because the retina contains only cones, Komodo dragons are only able to see colors for visual buruk.Komodo also use his tongue to detect taste and olfactory stimuli, like other reptiles, the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson's organ, which means that the step This will help in the dark. With the help of a good wind and swung his head from side to side when walking, komodo can detect the location of the carcass 4 and even up to 9.5 km from a distance.


Komodo dragons are always known by the islanders who call landline or speaker Crocodile. The existence of komodo reported for the first time in the early twentieth century by two Dutch fishermen, Aldégon Kock and the man who, during a trip to Indonesia.


In 1910, another fisherman reported to the governor of the region, Lieutenant Van Steyn Hensbroek from Dutch colonial rule, about the rumors of hooligan presence in this region. Knowledge has become widespread after 1912, when Peter Ouwens, director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor in Java, published an article on the subject after receiving photos and dragon skin from Van Steyn Hensbroek lieutenant and two other specimens from a collector. Later expeditions organizations to Komodo Island by W. Douglas Burden in 1926. He returned with 12 preserved specimens and two animal .. This expedition was the inspiration behind the movie King Kong in 1933. Three of the specimens of the expedition is still stored at the American Museum of Natural History.

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