Komodos breathe fire?

[sg1trogdor]

yeah, because they're considered to be venomous

THey have bacteria in there saliva and can give very severe infections.

[MechWarrior]

No! That's the dumbest myth I've ever heard since the "toads give you warts" myth! Who would possibly be gullible enough to believe that?

[HellPuppi]

Someone was reading 'Flight of Dragons' and thought it would be a funny joke.

'Flight of Dragons' was written during the ww2 era (forgot exact date). It about the theory that dragons could've existed, and various biological reasonings for how they could've breathed fire and flew. Of course the book version made a heck of a lot more sense

[NateDogg13]

[QUOTE=qiksilver;591876]so what? everything has bacteria in it's mouth... especially scavengers.

Komodos have the worst saliva of any animal on this planet, it does not kill any of the bacteria from the prey they eat and the flesh sits in the teeth and rots. The one thing that is said to be a sure death is a bite from a komodo. The bacteria is worse than any venom any snake can inject you with. A snake bite can be treated with antivenom and give you a chance to live but a bite from a komodo infects your blood so quickly if not treated IMMEDIATELY you WILL die from blood poisoning.

[daniel1983]

a bite from a komodo infects your blood so quickly if not treated IMMEDIATELY you WILL die from blood poisoning.

Yet there has only been one reported human fatality due to a komodo dragon bite in the last 33 years......go figure.

[cgrinter]

Well it's just that they have very high concentrations of bacteria that would otherwise be harmless...until a 150lb lizard bites you. A wound full of these bacteria, left untreated, will cause sepsis and death within a few days. There is also some evidence that they produce weak venom, however that seems uncertain.

And of course they don't breathe fire. Would be really awesome if they did though, and I doubt that a zoo would miss out on having such a show. Just think of how many people would want to go see a fire breathing lizard!

[ffollett]

For those that interested, here is a link to the study about venom in lizard species.

http://www.venomdoc.com/downloads/20...mate_venom.pdf


One of the authors (B.G.F.) has also acted as consultant on three varanid bites by captive bred specimens (Varanus komodoensis (Komodo Dragon), V. scalaris (Spotted Tree
Monitor) and V. varius (Lace Monitor)), each of which resulted in
rapid swelling (noticeable within minutes), dizziness, localized disruption of blood clotting and shooting pain extending from the
affected digit up to the elbow, with some symptoms lasting for several hours. The rapidity and pathology are consistent with bioactive secretions rather than bacterial infection. In addition, varanid venom also has been shown to have the ability to rapidly paralyse small animals such as birds25.