Varanidae

The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea and suborder Anguimorpha. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, includes the living genus Varanus and a number of extinct genera more closely related to Varanus than to the earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus). Varanus includes the Komodo dragon, crocodile monitor, savannah monitor, the goannas of Australia and Southeast Asia, and various other species with a similarly distinctive appearance. Their closest living relatives are the earless monitor lizard and Chinese crocodile lizard. The oldest members of the family are known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia.

Varanidae

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
monitor lizardPBDB
Sits inside
VaranoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 85 million years on record.

The record covers at least 85.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 13 of 184 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 184 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 6 of 184 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 184 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 71 of 184 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 16 of 184 occurrencesPleistocene — about 51 of 184 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 3 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–19 Mya — about 4 occurrences19–16 Mya — about 11 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 20 occurrences13–9.6 Mya — about 14 occurrences9.6–6.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences6.4–3.2 Mya — about 20 occurrences3.2–0 Mya — about 74 occurrences85.7 Mya11.7 ka96 Mya0 Mya

184 occurrences of Varanidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

184 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

55 formations

Nubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.01°N, 103.16°WDjadokhta — 44.22°N, 103.27°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 41.70°N, 106.80°EChitarwata — 30.08°N, 70.33°EWyandotte — 18.77°S, 144.85°ECarl Creek Limestone — 19.08°S, 138.72°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°ENachukui — 4.27°N, 35.82°ELance — 43.35°N, 104.48°WSterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°EOlorgesailie — 1.58°S, 36.43°ENyabusosi — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ECerro del Pueblo — 25.50°N, 101.75°WXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°ETwo Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WMansar — 32.71°N, 74.85°E

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The named rock units Varanidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 113 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Varanidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Varanidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,196 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 165 sites for Varanidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

114 references

Each of the 184 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 102 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Varanidae

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Varanidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itVaranoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hardwicke and Gray 1824