Varanus fyfei BEDFORD & DONNELLAN, 2026
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Varanus fyfei?
Varanus fyfei
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| Higher Taxa | Varanidae, Platynota, Varanoidea, Anguimorpha, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Victoria River Rock Goanna |
| Synonym | Varanus fyfei BEDFORD & DONNELLAN 2026: 540 |
| Distribution | Australia (Northern Territory) Type locality: small gorge on Bullo River Station, Northern Territory (-15.5044°, 129.5756°). |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. MAGNT R36793. An adult male collected by Gavin Bedford in 2005. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. A member of the subgenus Odatria distinguished from all others by the combination of long tail (202–230% of SVL) strongly patterned with alternating black and whitish rings, and with dorsal and lateral scales not keeled and uniformly oval in shape and medium body size (SVL up to 195mm). Varanus fyfei sp. nov. is further diagnosed from its sister species, V. glauerti, by tail bands in the middle section of the tail that are similar in width (black bands 0.9 to 1.3 times as wide as white bands), versus black bands 1.6 to 3.7 times wider than white bands. In comparison with V. glauerti, it has a less demarked alternating pattern of wide and narrow, light-coloured transverse bands separated by narrow dark transverse bands, with numerous small dark scales randomly distributed across the entire dorsum, neck and first half of the tail, such that the margins of the bands are not discrete and the dorsum has a variably densely peppered appearance. The wide and narrow light-coloured transverse bands are usually not the same colour (Fig. 6A–D), contrasting with V. glauerti in which the narrow and wide rows of ocelli are both typically the same colour (Fig. 6E–L). It is also diagnosed by small, low keeled, moderately mucronate lateral scales on the proximal tail versus small keeled but not mucronate lateral scales on the proximal tail in eastern V. glauerti (Fig. 7). Varanus fyfei sp. nov. is diagnosable from V. glauerti by apomorphic nucleotide states at 12 sites in a 667 bp alignment of the mitochondrial ND4 gene (Table 4) (Bedford & Donnellan 2026) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about between half a page and a page) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material. |
| Comment | Distribution: see map of localities in Bedford & Donnellan 2026: 527 (Fig. 1). |
| Etymology | Named after Greg Fyfe, biologist and ecologist with a dedicated interest in central Australian reptiles for over 30 years. As curator of both the Arid Australian Reptile Display and vertebrates at the Alice Springs Desert Park, Greg mentored many talented biologists who have had successful herpetological careers. |
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