KOMODO DRAGON (kuh-moh'-doh)In 1910 Lieutenant Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration heard stories about a "living dinosaur" in Indonesia. Ridicule gave way to amazement as the Komodo Dragons were discovered. They can grow up to 3 m (10 ft) and an might weigh 136 kg (300 lb). This, the biggest of known lizards, lives exclusively in Indonesia, mainly on Komodo island. Like other members of the monitor lizard family, they are carnivorous, feeding on animals as large as a deer or a pig. They can be fierce if cornered. Often the baby Komodo Dragons climb trees like an iguana. The large adults will burrow or pass the heat of day under bushes, coming out in the morning and evening. Like several other monitors, Komodo Dragons swim well, sometimes swimming to small islands where they are a threat to domestic livestock. In 2009 it was discovered that the dragons were venomous. Their bite doesn't just introduce bacteria into their prey, but they deliver a venom that stops blood clotting and induces low blood pressure to immobilize their victims! In some ways giant modern lizards help us understand how the great reptiles, like the dinosaur Thecodontosaurus, would have lived.