Varanus scalaris MERTENS, 1941
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Varanus scalaris
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| Higher Taxa | Varanidae, Platynota, Varanoidea, Anguimorpha, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Varanus timorensis scalaris MERTENS 1941: 266 Varanus timorensis scalaris — STORR 1980: 285 Varanus scalaris — STORR 1983: 106 Varanus timorensis — COGGER 1983 Odatria kuranda WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985: 21 Odatria pengilleyi WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985: 21 Varanus scalaris — DE LISLE 1996: 137 Varanus scalaris — COGGER 2000: 377 Varanus scalaris — WILSON & SWAN 2010 Varanus (Odatria) scalaris — HÖRENBERG & KOCH 2013 Varanus (Odatria) scalaris — BUCKLITSCH et al. 2016: 50 |
| Distribution | N Australia (Western Australia, Queensland) Type locality: Mission Beagle Bay, Dampier Land, NW Australia. Type locality (kuranda): Kuranda, Queensland (16° 49'S X 145° 38'E). Type locality (pengilleyi): 40 km E. of Pascoe River Crossing (on road to Iron Range), Cape York, Queensland (12° 44'S X 143° 10'E). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: SMF 32806, Paratype: ZMB 30550 Holotype: AMS R94494, collected on 4 July, 1980 by Elizabeth Cameron, Des Beechey, Harold Cogger, S. von Sturmer et. al. [pengilleyi] Holotype: AMS R68820, collected by Brian Lazell, on 24 December, 1970 [kuranda] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A medium-sized arboreal monitor (up to 59 cm long) with uncompressed tail, caudal scales strongly keeled and mucronate, and in males several rows of small narrow spinose white scales on lateroventral surface of tail immediately behind cloaca. Further distinguishable from V. tristis by shorter snout and deeper head (giving it a seal-like profile), sides of head and neck and often top of head spotted, shorter appendages, fewer midbody scale rows, and supraorbitals not so well differentiated from interorbitals. (Storr 1980) |
| Comment | Subspecies: Varanus scalaris similis has been elevated to full species status. Distribution: Not in S New Guinea fide BÖHME (2003), and restricted to a relatively small area around the type locality (A. Koch, pers. comm., 17 Jan 2017). Synonymy: following SHEA & SADLIER 1999: 64. Photo: Biawak 5 (3): 54 (2011) |
| Etymology | Presumably named after the Latin scalaris (of a ladder), in reference to the ladder-like pattern on the back of the type population. (G. Shea, pers. comm., 9 Feb 2024) |
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