Theories as to what inspired stories of dragons include lost crocodiles and dinosaur bones, but we can’t call these real dragons because humans never encountered dinosaurs, and crocodiles are too small. That’s where the Megalania comes in, an ancient relative of the Komodo Dragon that terrorized the Aboriginals of Australia. It grew to lengths of up to twenty-six feet (eight meters) and weighed up to 4,300 pounds (1.9 tons). Its poisonous saliva contained a blood thinner that caused its victims to bleed to death.