Reptilia - Squamata - Varanidae
Synonyms: Iberovaranus Hoffstetter 1969, Megalania Owen 1859, Notiosaurus Owen 1884
Parent taxon: Varanidae according to A. Villa et al. 2018
See also Alifanov 1993, Carroll 1988, Clos 1995, de Lapparent de Broin et al. 2020, Delfino et al. 2013, Estes 1983, Estes et al. 1988, Frank and Ramus 1996, Georgalis et al. 2017, Head et al. 2009, Hoffstetter 1969, Ivanov et al. 2018, Kuhn 1966, Lee and Caldwell 2000, McDowell and Bogert 1954, Vasilyan and Bukhsianidze 2020 and Villa and Delfino 2022
Sister taxa: Archaeovaranus, Cherminotus, Lanthanotus, Megalaninae, Saniwides, Telmasaurus, Varaninae
Subtaxa: Iberovaranus catalaunicus Varanus (Varaneades) Varanus acanthurus Varanus albigularis Varanus baritji Varanus beccarii Varanus bengalensis Varanus bogerti Varanus brevicauda Varanus catalaunicus Varanus caudolineatus Varanus deserticolus Varanus doreanus Varanus dumerili Varanus eremitus Varanus eremius Varanus exanthematicus Varanus gilleni Varanus griseus Varanus hoffmanni Varanus hooijeri Varanus komodoensis Varanus lemoinei Varanus lungui Varanus marathonensis Varanus mokrensis Varanus niloticus Varanus olivaceus Varanus prasinus Varanus prisca Varanus rusingensis Varanus salvadorii Varanus salvator Varanus semiremex Varanus semjonovi Varanus sivalensis Varanus tristis Varanus tyrasiensis Varanus varius
Ecology: scansorial carnivore
Distribution:
• Quaternary of Australia (21 collections), the Congo-Kinshasa (1), Eritrea (2), Greece (1), Guam (4), India (1), Indonesia (7), Kenya (2), New Caledonia (2), Niger (1), Northern Mariana Islands (2), the Philippines (2), South Africa (3), Sudan (7), Thailand (3), Zambia (3)
• Pliocene to Pleistocene of Uganda (1)
• Pliocene of Australia (2), Greece (1), Hungary (2), Kenya (1), Pakistan (1), Spain (1), Turkey (2), Ukraine (1)
• Miocene to Pliocene of Chad (1), Uganda (1)
• Miocene of Afghanistan (1), Armenia (1), Austria (3), Chad (1), China (1), the Czech Republic (2), Egypt (1), France (6), Georgia (1), Germany (4), Greece (6), Hungary (1), India (3), Italy (2), Kazakhstan (2), Kenya (2), Moldova (2), Namibia (1), Pakistan (2), Portugal (2), Romania (1), the Russian Federation (1), Spain (9), Switzerland (1), Turkey (2)
• Oligocene of Australia (2), Egypt (2)
• Eocene of Egypt (1), France (1)
Total: 140 collections including 146 occurrences
Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.
Click image to enlarge. Click to access iDigBio record.