Desert monitor Varanus griseus caspius, copyright Denis Nuridjanov.
Belongs within: Anguimorpha.
The Varanidae, monitor lizards, are a group of lizards found in warmer parts of the Old World, characterised by a long, slender neck together with a long, strong tail, pentadactyl limbs with a strong claw on each digit, a covering of small, juxtaposed scales, and a long, deeply bifid tongue.
<==Varanidae
|--Iberovaranus Hoffstetter 1969 RB05
`--Varanus Merrem 1820 RB05 [incl. Megalania Owen 1859 D07]
| i. s.: V. baritji DK14
| V. bengalensis USDI77
| V. bushi DK14
| V. caudolineatus ADD08
| V. exanthematicus K08
| V. flavescens USDI77
| V. giganteus TW05
| V. gilleni DK14
| V. glauerti PP13
| V. glebopalma PP13
| V. gouldii (Gray 1838) ADD08
| V. hamersleyensis DK14
| V. hofmanni Roger 1898 RB05
| V. indicus WH02
| V. komodoensis DK14
| V. mertensi PP13
| V. mitchelli PP13
| V. niloticus D56
| ‘Tupinambis’ ornatus Daudin 1803 M54
| V. ‘ornatus’ Gray 1845 non Daudin 1803 M54
| V. panoptes HD04
| V. pilbarensis HD04
| V. prasinus DV87
| V. priscus [=Megalania prisca; incl. Notiosaurus dentatus] F71
| V. pronini Zerova & Ckhikvadze 1986 RB05
| V. punctatus [=V. p. var. typica; incl. V. p. var. orientalis Fry 1913] F13
| V. rosenbergi DK14
| V. rudicollis GWN71
| V. rusingensis Clos 1995 RB05
| V. salvator MH11
| V. scalaris PP13
| V. semiremex DK14
| V. tristis ADD08
| V. tsukamotoi Kishida 1929 TYM08
|--*V. (Varanus) varius (White 1790) [=Lacerta varia] DK14
|--V. (Odatria Gray 1838) DK14
| |--V. (O.) acanthurus Boulenger 1885 DK14
| | |--V. a. acanthurus DK14
| | `--V. a. insulanicus DK14
| |--V. (O.) brevicauda Boulenger 1898 DK14
| |--V. (O.) eremius Lucas & Frost 1895 DK14
| `--V. (O.) sparnus Doughty, Kealley et al. 2014 DK14
`--V. (Psammosaurus) griseus (Daudin 1803) [=Tupinambis griseus] M54
|--V. g. griseus (see below for synonymy) M54
|--V. g. caspius (Eichwald 1931) [=Psammosaurus caspius; incl. V. caspicus Gray 1845] M54
`--V. g. koniecznyi Mertens 1954 (see below for synonymy) M54
Inorganic: Varanus salvator protominilorientalus Okamura 1987 O87
Varanus griseus griseus (Daudin 1803) [incl. Psammosaurus arabicus Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1899, V. arenaceus Gervais 1848, Tupinambis arenarius Geoffroy 1827, V. scincus Merrem 1820, V. terrestris Schinz 1834] M54
Varanus griseus koniecznyi Mertens 1954 [=V. ornatus Carlleyle 1869 nec Tupinambis ornatus Daudin 1803 nec V. ornatus Gray 1845] M54
*Type species of generic name indicated
REFERENCES
[ADD08] Aplin, K., S. Donnellan & J. Dell. 2008. The herpetofauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia.
Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 39–53.
[D56] Dawes, B. 1956.
The Trematoda with special reference to British and other European forms. University Press: Cambridge.
[DV87] De Vis, C. W. 1887. On new or rare vertebrates from the Herbert River, north Queensland.
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1129–1137.
[D07] Dixon, D. 2007.
The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Hermes House: London.
[DK14] Doughty, P., L. Kealley, A. Fitch & S. C. Donnellan. 2014. A new diminutive species of
Varanus from the Dampier Peninsula, western Kimberley region, Western Australia.
Records of the Western Australian Museum 29 (2): 128–140.
[F71] Fletcher, H. O. 1971. Catalogue of type specimens of fossils in the Australian Museum, Sydney.
Australian Museum Memoir 13: 1–167.
[F13] Fry, D. B. 1913. On a
Varanus and a frog from Burnett River, Queensland, and a revision of the variations in
Limnodynastes dorsalis, Gray.
Records of the Australian Museum 10 (2): 17–34, pls 1–3.
[GWN71] Gorman, G. C., A. C. Wilson & M. Nakanishi. 1971. A biochemical approach towards the study of reptilian phylogeny: evolution of serum albumin and lactic dehydrogenase.
Systematic Zoology 20 (2): 167–185.
[HD04] How, R. A., & J. Dell. 2004. Reptile assemblage of the Abydos Plain, north-eastern Pilbara, Western Australia.
Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 85–95.
[K08] Korsós, Z. 2008. History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum.
Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 100: 37–93.
[M54] Mertens, R. 1954. Über die Rassen des Wüstenwarans (
Varanus griseus).
Senckenbergiana Biologica 35 (5-6): 353–357.
[MH11] Müller, J., C. A. Hipsley, J. J. Head, N. Kardjilov, A. Hilger, M. Wuttke & R. R. Reisz. 2011. Eocene lizard from Germany reveals amphisbaenian origins.
Nature 473: 364–367.
[O87] Okamura, C. 1987. New facts:
Homo and all Vertebrata were born simultaneously in the former Paleozoic in Japan.
Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory 15: 347–573.
[PP13] Palmer, R., D. J. Pearson, M. A. Cowan & P. Doughty. 2013. Islands and scales: a biogeographic survey of reptiles on Kimberley islands, Western Australia.
Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 183–204.
[RB05] Rage, J.-C., & S. Bailon. 2005. Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the late early Miocene (MN 4) of Béon 1 (Montréal-du-Gers, southwestern France).
Geodiversitas 27 (3): 413–441.
[TYM08] Tennent, W. J., M. Yasuda & K. Morimoto. 2008.
Lansania Journal of arachnology and zoology—a rare and obscure Japanese natural history journal.
Archives of Natural History 35 (2): 252–280.
[TW05] Thompson, S. A., P. C. Withers, G. G. Thompson & D. Robinson. 2005. Range extension for the perentie,
Varanus giganteus (Squamata, Varanidae).
Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88 (1): 41–43.
[USDI77] USDI (United States Department of the Interior). 1977. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants—republication of list of species.
Federal Register 42: 36420–36431.
[WH02] Worthy, T. H., & R. N. Holdaway. 2002.
The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press: Bloomington (Indiana).
