Varanus hooijeri
| Varanus hooijeri Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Varanidae |
| Genus: | Varanus |
| Species: | †V. hooijeri
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Varanus hooijeri Brongersma, 1958
| |
Varanus hooijeri (also known as Flores Monitor) is an extinct species of a medium-sized monitor lizard, found in Liang Bua on Flores and possibly also Sumba in Indonesia, dating back to the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.
Discovery
[edit]It was described in 1958 by Leo Daniël Brongersma on the island of Flores in Indonesia.[1] In 2021, two maxilla bones from each having four teeth from Liang Lawuala on Sumba, were assigned to V. cf. hooijeri, suggesting that it inhabited Sumba as well.[2]
Description
[edit]Varanus hooijeri is a medium-sized varanid, at around 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long,[3] around the size of a living Nile monitor.[4] The teeth of V. hooijeri are blunt and wide (or bunodont). Unlike the sharp, curved teeth typically seen in other monitor lizards,[2] this has been assessed as adapted for a frugivore diet, supplemented by small mammals and insects.[2]
Paleoecology
[edit]Varanus hooijeri lived with another, much larger, monitor lizard, the living Komodo dragon. Due to its frugivore diet, it would have niche partitioned with a larger animal, although it may have been prey for the latter.
It also lived with the dwarf proboscidean Stegodon florensis,[5] the large stork Leptoptilos robustus,[6] the cat-sized Flores giant rat[7] and the dwarf hominid Homo floresiensis.[8]
Extinction
[edit]The youngest remains of the species date to the Holocene.[2][9]
References
[edit]- ^ Brongersma, L. D. (1958). "On an extinct species of the genus Varanus (Reptilia, Sauria) from the island of Flores". Zoologische Mededelingen. S2CID 86301714.
- ^ a b c d Turvey, Samuel T.; Crees, Jennifer J.; Hansford, James; Jeffree, Timothy E.; Crumpton, Nick; Kurniawan, Iwan; Setiyabudi, Erick; Guillerme, Thomas; Paranggarimu, Umbu; Dosseto, Anthony; van den Bergh, Gerrit D. (2017-08-30). "Quaternary vertebrate faunas from Sumba, Indonesia: implications for Wallacean biogeography and evolution". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 284 (1861): 20171278. doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.1278. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 5577490. PMID 28855367.
- ^ Conrad, Jack L.; Balcarcel, Ana M.; Mehling, Carl M. (2012-08-10). "Earliest Example of a Giant Monitor Lizard (Varanus, Varanidae, Squamata)". PLOS ONE. 7 (8): e41767. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...741767C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041767. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3416840. PMID 22900001.
- ^ Pianka, Erick; King, Dennis; King, Ruth Allen (2004-09-21). Varanoid Lizards of the World. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34366-6.
- ^ Van Den Bergh, G. D.; Awe, Rokhus Due; Morwood, M. J.; Sutikna, T.; Jatmiko; Wahyu Saptomo, E. (2008-05-01). "The youngest stegodon remains in Southeast Asia from the Late Pleistocene archaeological site Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia". Quaternary International. Insularity and its Effects. 182 (1): 16–48. Bibcode:2008QuInt.182...16V. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.02.001. ISSN 1040-6182.
- ^ Meijer, Hanneke J. M.; Sutikna, Thomas; Wahyu Saptomo, E.; Tocheri, Matthew W. (July 2022). "More bones of Leptoptilos robustus from Flores reveal new insights into giant marabou stork paleobiology and biogeography". Royal Society Open Science. 9 (7): 220435. Bibcode:2022RSOS....920435M. doi:10.1098/rsos.220435. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 9277297. PMID 35845853.
- ^ Musser, Guy G. (1981). "The giant rat of Flores and its relatives east of Borneo and Bali. Bulletin of the AMNH". hdl:2246/568.
- ^ "Homo floresiensis: Making Sense of the Small-Bodied Hominin Fossils from Flores | Learn Science at Scitable". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
- ^ van den Bergh, G.D.; Meijer, H.J.M.; Due Awe, Rokhus; Morwood, M.J.; Szabó, K.; van den Hoek Ostende, L.W.; Sutikna, T.; Saptomo, E.W.; Piper, P.J.; Dobney, K.M. (November 2009). "The Liang Bua faunal remains: a 95k.yr. sequence from Flores, East Indonesia". Journal of Human Evolution. 57 (5): 527–537. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.015. PMID 19058833.