Here there be dragons

The BBC's new natural history blockbuster, Planet Earth 2, contains some quite  extraordinary footage of fighting Komodo Dragons; you can see the clip here. This is a photograph of the dragon's skull and its formidable dentition.

The Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis is a large and ferocious species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Padar. It is the largest living species of lizard, growing to an impressive length of 3 metres and weighing in at up to 70 kilograms. They are a prime example of island gigantism whereby animals that are small on continents tend to get large when they colonise isolated islands. In contrast large continental animals tend to become smaller when they colonise islands, as for example the dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean islands, now sadly long extinct.