Which is the largest reptile on Earth?

[slim6y]

Is it:
a) The komodo dragon

b) The Salty

c) Hamish the gecko (from another thread)

d) The nile croc (which must be similar to the aussie one)

e) Some sea turtle... Leatherback???

f) or is it this guy http://www.reptilerooms.com/displayarticle93-flat.html

g) or this guy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1689313.stm

I'm confused...

It's not a matter of life or death, but would love to hear what you have heard, seen or encountered...

Good luck on this important quest...

ps The Jaragua Sphaero fits on a Dominican Peso, approximately the size of a U.S. quarter. which is approximately the size of an Aussie 10c wooooowho! Imagine keeping them in a tank. wouldn't have any escapees!

[Jungletrans]

When you find out here is a snack for it .

[Tsidasa]

Originally Posted by slim6y

ps The Jaragua Sphaero fits on a Dominican Peso, approximately the size of a U.S. quarter. which is approximately the size of an Aussie 10c wooooowho! Imagine keeping them in a tank. wouldn't have any escapees!

[snakelover]

Well, I don't know about the 'largest'... but the 'BIGGEST' is undoubtedly this bloke: http://www.reptilepark.com.au/ericsParty.asp

John

[Magpie]

In terms of weight, nothing comes near the saltwater croc.

[jordo]

Originally Posted by Magpie

In terms of weight, nothing comes near the saltwater croc.

I think nile crocs get larger than aussie ones because they have had to adapt to larger prey.
How much does a big retic weight?

[Magpie]

The largest living reptile, a representative of the order Crocodilia, is the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), with adult males being typically 4.5–5 m (14.8-16.5 ft) long, although the largest recorded crocodile was 8.63 m (28.3 feet) in length and weighed over 2000 kg (4400 pounds)

The most massive member of this reptilian superorder is the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus). The maximum verified size is 9.5 m (31.4 ft) and 250 kg (550 lb)

......

[herptrader]

I presume you mean a reptile that is still living. There are some really large extinct reptiles.

Also do you mean large in terms of weight? ... or length?

How about: http://www.firstscience.com/site/articles/dinosaur.asp ?

The largest dinosaur we have ever found is Seismosaurus in New Mexico. Its fossil bones reveal an animal that may have weighed in at 30 tonnes and was up to an incredible 170 feet long; 2 times longer than today’s largest animal, the blue whale.
Joe Tucciarone

At nearly 170ft long the Seismosaurus was the largest animal to ever walk the earth.

[slim6y]

WHOOOOA!!!! Imagine the anaconda on ya...

But a 2 tonne croc is a hell of a lot of croc... would like to see a pic and what it eats...

Magpie: That link (wikipedia) very nice... but it instantly goes on to talk about water buffalo - which from my knowledge may not occur in NT or QLD... would that be a fair assumption?

So by jordo's reckoning then... The salty's from asia where water buffalo may exist would indicate then that the salty's would be HUGE compared to our NT and QLD crocs.

I was talking to a wildlife expert just then, and he said water buffalo used to exist in NT and were shot out in the 80s and 90s so the crocs never dealt with them... Maybe there's a few still there??? Imported from Indonesia.

Apparently a healthy meat - low in cholesterol... Very healthy... Our crocs have good hearts

So does that solve the largest reptile? Is it a salty from indonesia... or is it a leatherback turtle??? I think I might be disapointed if it's a leatherback turtle!

[slim6y]

Originally Posted by herptrader

I presume you mean a reptile that is still living. There are some really large extinct reptiles.

Also do you mean large in terms of weight? ... or length?

Largest by any means... Longest is obviously a snake... Largest maybe by weight or by general bulk... You choose... I just like to see everyone's answers... hehe... So far I am saying an indonesian salty is the worlds largest growing reptile... Extinct... hmmm... i think we should stay with living ones... Just for now anyway.

[castellano]

"The saltwater or estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is the largest of all existing reptiles. Adult male saltwater crocodiles are typically 4.8 meters to 5 metres long, weigh around 680 kg. Although larger individuals may surpass 6 metresor 7 metres in length and weigh more than 1500 kg. In fact this species is capable of growing to sizes up to 8 metres or even 9 metres. Females are much smaller than males, with typical female body lengths in the range of 2.5–3 metres. The largest crocodile ever recorded was 8 metres 64cm shot by Krystina Pawloski (School teacher, later conservationist) on the Norman River in northern Queensland, Australia in 1957". A qoute from WIKIPEDIA. the crocs name was Krys the Croc.

Cheers Aaron

[castellano]

Here are some pics of the full scale model of krys the croc. they also say that he was missing a foot of his tail.

[Magpie]

There's still a lot of Water Buffalo in the territory, just not the plague proportions there used to be. The crocs up there also eat a lot of the free range beef cattle.
But the size of the animal is more related to availability of food rather than food size, once they are big enough to take down a buffalo, there's no need to be bigger.

[herptrader]

This page could have been written in response to this thread: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herp...cbd-faq-q2.htm

[adbacus]

The loch ness monster if he does truly exist