Excerpt
Chapter 1: Meet the Komodo Dragon
A Komodo dragon isn’t the kind of dragon that breathes fire or flies through the sky. It doesn’t have magical powers, wings, or glittering scales. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive. It’s real, it’s alive today, and it’s unlike almost any other animal on Earth. In fact, it’s the biggest living lizard in the world.
Let’s start with what it looks like. A Komodo dragon is a giant, with a long, thick body covered in rough, bumpy skin that’s tough like armor. Its color is kind of dusty and dull—usually gray, greenish-brown, or tan—which helps it blend in with the dry land where it lives. Its head is wide and flat, with two watchful eyes that don’t miss much, and a long forked tongue that flicks in and out, picking up scents in the air. That tongue is one of its secret weapons, but we’ll get to that another time.
From nose to tail, a full-grown Komodo dragon can stretch longer than a bicycle. Some even grow longer than a tall adult! They can weigh more than a fourth grader—sometimes even as much as a sixth grader plus a backpack full of books. And when they walk, it’s with a slow, heavy sway. Their short, powerful legs carry them low to the ground, and their thick tails swing behind them, helping them balance and sometimes even knock things over. They move with the calm confidence of an animal that doesn’t need to prove anything.
One of the coolest things about the Komodo dragon is that it’s a reptile, which means it’s cold-blooded, lays eggs, and has scaly skin. But it’s not like a little lizard you might see sunning itself on a rock. Komodo dragons are in a league of their own. They belong to a group of reptiles called monitor lizards, and they’re the biggest member of the group by far. In fact, they’re the closest thing we have today to the giant reptiles that roamed Earth millions of years ago.
Even though Komodo dragons are fierce and powerful, they weren’t discovered by scientists until a little over 100 years ago. That might sound like a long time, but in the world of science, it’s pretty recent. Before that, only local people knew about them, and there were even stories and legends about these mysterious beasts living on faraway islands. When scientists finally saw one up close, they couldn’t believe it. It was like something out of a prehistoric story—huge, scaly, and completely real.
Komodo dragons are tough, but they don’t live just anywhere. They’re only found on a few islands in Indonesia, which is a country made up of thousands of islands in Southeast Asia. The dragons live in hot, dry places with grassy hills, forests, and beaches. That’s their kingdom. There, they rule the land like quiet, scaly giants.
A Komodo dragon isn’t the kind of dragon that breathes fire or flies through the sky. It doesn’t have magical powers, wings, or glittering scales. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive. It’s real, it’s alive today, and it’s unlike almost any other animal on Earth. In fact, it’s the biggest living lizard in the world.
Let’s start with what it looks like. A Komodo dragon is a giant, with a long, thick body covered in rough, bumpy skin that’s tough like armor. Its color is kind of dusty and dull—usually gray, greenish-brown, or tan—which helps it blend in with the dry land where it lives. Its head is wide and flat, with two watchful eyes that don’t miss much, and a long forked tongue that flicks in and out, picking up scents in the air. That tongue is one of its secret weapons, but we’ll get to that another time.
From nose to tail, a full-grown Komodo dragon can stretch longer than a bicycle. Some even grow longer than a tall adult! They can weigh more than a fourth grader—sometimes even as much as a sixth grader plus a backpack full of books. And when they walk, it’s with a slow, heavy sway. Their short, powerful legs carry them low to the ground, and their thick tails swing behind them, helping them balance and sometimes even knock things over. They move with the calm confidence of an animal that doesn’t need to prove anything.
One of the coolest things about the Komodo dragon is that it’s a reptile, which means it’s cold-blooded, lays eggs, and has scaly skin. But it’s not like a little lizard you might see sunning itself on a rock. Komodo dragons are in a league of their own. They belong to a group of reptiles called monitor lizards, and they’re the biggest member of the group by far. In fact, they’re the closest thing we have today to the giant reptiles that roamed Earth millions of years ago.
Even though Komodo dragons are fierce and powerful, they weren’t discovered by scientists until a little over 100 years ago. That might sound like a long time, but in the world of science, it’s pretty recent. Before that, only local people knew about them, and there were even stories and legends about these mysterious beasts living on faraway islands. When scientists finally saw one up close, they couldn’t believe it. It was like something out of a prehistoric story—huge, scaly, and completely real.
Komodo dragons are tough, but they don’t live just anywhere. They’re only found on a few islands in Indonesia, which is a country made up of thousands of islands in Southeast Asia. The dragons live in hot, dry places with grassy hills, forests, and beaches. That’s their kingdom. There, they rule the land like quiet, scaly giants.