The largest lizards still on the planet, the Komodo dragon, survived due to a lucky combination of mediocre habitat on their home islands and unintended human interventions. via InsideScience.
-- Extinction wiped out their closest family members as well as most of the ancient reptiles of comparable size. But the largest lizards still on the planet, the Komodo dragon, survived due to a lucky combination of mediocre habitat on their home islands and unintended human interventions.
Despite their name, Komodos likely didn't evolve on the island with which they share a name. The fossil record suggests they evolved in Australia about 4 million years ago, along with an even larger sister species, Varanus priscus. More recently, when sea levels were lower and distances between the islands were shorter, some Komodos likely swam or rafted to their present sanctuary.
Komodo Island is quite dry and not a great place for humans to live, even if you forget the threat of being eaten by giant venomous dragons. The big lizards could handle a dry environment like Komodo Island because, like all reptiles, they are experts at boom and bust cycles. Being coldblooded, they have lower energy demands, and can survive on little sustenance for months at a time, and fossil evidence shows that the dragons were smaller during periods when there wasn't as much large prey available.
While the lack of any concentrated population of humans has helped them persist, humans have also unwittingly helped the dragons through the millennia. Prey items that were never previously on the menu on the islands like pigs, buffalo and deer were all introduced to Komodo Island by humans 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.
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