Quoted from Daily Science Journal, Komodo dragons and monitor lizards actually come from the same genus, namely the genus Varanus. Komodo dragons are arguably one of 80 carnivorous species that are still in the same family as monitor lizards and are included in the genus Varanus Komodoensis.
Komodo was first discovered when Europeans explored Indonesia following rumors of crocodiles living on land in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1910.
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The first paper on Komodo dragons was published two years later when the director of the Zoological Museum in Java received a specimen sample from a collector.
a komodo are known to take up to nine years to mature and can live for about 30 years. Like other monitor lizards, Komodo dragons reproduce by mating around the second or third quarter of the year (between May and August) and then laying their eggs in nesting holes around September.
One Komodo dragon can produce about 20 eggs per season and will incubate the eggs for up to eight months. When young dragons are born, they are vulnerable to other Komodo dragons because these reptiles are known as wild carnivores.
Unlike the water monitor lizard whose skin is used for various handicrafts, the skin of the Komodo dragon is not very suitable for leather products. The skin has small bones called “osteoderm” which will protect it from predators.
Komodo is the largest extant monitor lizard, with a length of up to 3 meters and a weight of about 70 kilograms. Before monitor lizards, there was the genus Megalania which went extinct 50,000 years ago which was 7 meters long and weighed up to 620 kilograms.
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