Komodo dragons have an elaborate chainmail of BONES beneath their skin to protect against attacks from their rivals, scans reveal
- University of Texas scientists studied the animal and found the protective armor
- The dragons are dominant predators so the armour protects against their own
- Scientists determined this after scanning the reptiles with high-powered X-rays
Komodo dragons are protected from rival attacks by an intricate chainmail armour made of tiny bones beneath their skin, scans have revealed.
Researchers at The University of Texas studied the animals and found their protective armor covers them from head to tail, making them more robust in battle.
Despite being the world’s largest lizard and the dominant predator in their natural habitat, they still need protection – but only from other Komodo dragons.
Scientists determined this after scanning the reptiles with high-powered X-rays.
Bony plates called osteoderms (colored orange in this digital reconstruction by the University of Texas) cover the skull of an adult Komodo dragon
Scientists unveiled the beasts’ natural armour using computed tomography (CT scan) technology to look inside and digitally reconstruct the skeletons of two deceased dragon specimens – one adult and one baby.
The adult was well-equipped with armor, but it was completely absent in the baby.
It’s a finding that suggests that the bony plates don’t appear until adulthood. And the only thing adult dragons need protection from is other dragons.
‘Young komodo dragons spend quite a bit of time in trees,’ said Professor Christopher Bell.
‘And when they’re large enough to come out of the trees, that’s when they start getting in arguments with members of their own species. That would be a time when extra armor would help.’
Many groups of lizards have bones embedded in their skin called osteoderms. Scientists have known about osteoderms in Komodo dragons since at least the 1920s, when naturalist William D. Burden noted their presence as an impediment to the mass production of dragon leather.
But since the skin is the first organ removed when making a skeleton, scientists do not have much information about how they are shaped or arranged inside the skin, or considerations about what they’re used for.
The researchers were able to overcome this issue by examining the dragons at UT’s High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility, which is managed by Maisano.
Osteoderm comparisons among different species show how the chainmail affects works
Due to size constraints of the scanner, the researchers only scanned the head of the nearly 9-foot-long adult Komodo dragon, which was donated by the Fort Worth Zoo when it died
The lab’s CT scanners are similar to a clinical CT scanner but use higher-energy X-rays and finer detectors to reveal the interiors of specimens in great detail.
Due to the size constraints of the scanner, the researchers only scanned the head of the nearly nine-foot-long adult Komodo dragon, which was donated by the Fort Worth Zoo when it died at 19½ years old.
The San Antonio Zoo donated the two-day-old baby specimen.
The CT scans revealed that the tiny bones in the adult Komodo dragon were unique among lizards in both their diversity of shapes and sheer coverage.
Komodo dragons are dominant predators in their natural habitat (Pictured, one on the island of Komodo in Indonesia) so scientists concluded the bony armour must be to protect against their own species
Whereas the heads of other lizards examined by the researchers for comparison usually had one or two shapes of osteoderms, and sometimes large areas free of them, the Komodo had four distinct shapes and a head almost entirely encased in armor.
The only areas lacking osteoderms on the head of the adult Komodo dragon were around the eyes, nostrils, mouth margins and pineal eye, a light-sensing organ on the top of the head.
‘We were really blown away when we saw it,’ lead scientist Jessica Maisano said.
‘Most monitor lizards just have these vermiform (worm-shaped) osteoderms, but this guy has four very distinct morphologies, which is very unusual across lizards.’
The adult dragon that the researchers examined was among the oldest known Komodo dragons living in captivity when it died. Maisano said that the advanced age may partially explain its extreme armor; as lizards age, their bones may continue to ossify, adding more and more layers of material, until death.
She said that more research on Komodo dragons of different ages can help reveal how their armor develops over time – and may help pinpoint when Komodos first start to prepare for battle with other dragons.
