The greater krayt dragon represented a sizable species within the krayt dragon family, fearsome predatory reptiles native to the world of Tatooine. It possessed ten powerful legs and effectively "swam" through the ever-shifting sands of its homeworld.
The greater krayt dragon was a specific species of krayt dragons. These were enormous carnivorous reptiles that inhabited the Tatooine landscape. Key features included a long neck, a tail resembling a whip, horns, sharp teeth, and a total of five pairs of legs.
Greater krayt dragons would bury themselves within the sandy dunes, effectively "swimming" beneath the surface as they searched for prey to ambush and devour.
Greater krayt dragons evolved on Tatooine, a desert planet situated within the Outer Rim territories of the galaxy. In the year 0 BBY, the droid C-3PO stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a young, deceased greater krayt dragon while he was lost within the Dune Sea.
The Jedi Master known as Wishan once created a clay Force-sculpture depicting a greater krayt dragon. This creation was intended as part of a 72nd birthday present for the Jedi Temple's librarian.
The greater krayt dragon made its initial appearance, although only as a skeleton in the Tatooine desert, during Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The skeleton that was used to represent the greater krayt dragon was composed of fiberglass replica sauropod bones. These bones were originally constructed for the 1975 Disney comedy film titled One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and were abandoned in the Tunisian desert after the film's production concluded. In 1995, Dr. David West Reynolds, an archeologist and contributor to the magazine Star Wars Insider, visited the Tunisian site and discovered that the bones had remained untouched for nearly two decades alongside paleontologist Dr. Micheal J. Ryan, who was investigating the Roman ruins and paleontological resources of Tunisia with Dr. Reynolds.