Megalania
| Megalania Temporal range: Late Pleistocene |
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|---|---|
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| Megalania skeletal reconstruction on Melbourne Museum steps | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Varanidae |
| Genus: | Varanus |
| Species: | V. priscus |
| Binomial name | |
| Varanus priscus Owen 1859 |
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Megalania (Varanus prisca) was a giant monitor lizard that lived in southern Australia. It was part of a species of megafauna that lived during the Pleistocene, and appears to have disappeared around 40,000 years ago. The first Aboriginal settlers of Australia may have encountered living Megalania.[1]
Megalania is the land-based lizard known to have existed. Judging from its size, Megalania would have fed mostly upon medium- to large-sized animals, including any of the giant marsupials like Diprotodon .
Size [change]
Ralph Molnar in 2004 determined a range of possible sizes for Megalania. He did this by scaling up from dorsal vertebrae, after he determined a relationship between dorsal vertebrae length and total body length. If it had a long thin tail like the Lace monitor (Varanus varius), then it would have reached a length of 7.9 metres (26 ft). If its tail-to-body proportions were more similar to that of the Komodo dragon, then a length of around 7 metres (23 ft) is more likely. Using 7 m as the maximum length, Molnar estimated the average weight of the lizard at 320 kilograms (710 lb), and 1,940 kilograms (4,300 lb) as the maximum.[2]
This is twice the length of their closest living relative, the Komodo dragon of eastern Indonesia.[3]
References [change]
- ↑ "Megalania, giant ripper lizard". BBC Science & Nature. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3046.shtml. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
- ↑ R. E. Molnar (2004). Dragons in the dust: the paleobiology of the giant monitor lizard Megalania. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253343741. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=AvPHRQYqEcQC&redir_esc=y.
- ↑ R. E. Molnar (2004), "History of monitors and their kin", in E. R. Pianka; D. King; R. A. King, Varanoid lizards of the world, Indiana University Press
