Varanus hooijeri

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Varanus hooijeri
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
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.

Contents

Discovery

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

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

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

The youngest remains of the species date to the Holocene. [2] [9]

References

  1. ↑ Brongersma, L. D. (1958). "On an extinct species of the genus Varanus (Reptilia, Sauria) from the island of Flores". Zoologische Mededelingen. S2CID   86301714.
  2. 1 2 3 4 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Pianka, Erick; King, Dennis; King, Ruth Allen (2004-09-21). Varanoid Lizards of the World. Indiana University Press. ISBN   978-0-253-34366-6.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Musser, Guy G. (1981). "The giant rat of Flores and its relatives east of Borneo and Bali. Bulletin of the AMNH". hdl:2246/568.
  8. ↑ "Homo floresiensis: Making Sense of the Small-Bodied Hominin Fossils from Flores | Learn Science at Scitable". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  9. ↑ 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. Bibcode:2009JHumE..57..527V. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.015. PMID   19058833.
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