Varanus varius
The lace monitor, also known as the tree goanna, is a member of the monitor lizard family native to eastern Australia. A large lizard, it can reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in total length and 14 kilograms (31 lb) in weight. The lace monitor is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Bidgee · CC BY-SA 3.0 au · 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
- Lace monitorPBDB
- Sits inside
- VaranusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Varanidae
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Varanidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Varanidae
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
4 occurrences of Varanus varius on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
4 occurrences- Pleistocene98%
- Holocene2%
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.
Varanus varius and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Varanus varius and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
122 taxa- Cercartetus nanus4 sites
- Dasyurus viverrinus4 sites
- Petaurus breviceps4 sites
- Potorous platyops4 sites
- Pseudocheirus peregrinus4 sites
- Simosthenurus occidentalis4 sites
- Tiliqua4 sites
- Antechinus flavipes3 sites
- Bettongia3 sites
- Bettongia lesueur3 sites
- Conilurus3 sites
- Egernia3 sites
- Isoodon obesulus3 sites
- Lagorchestes3 sites
- Macropus3 sites
- Macropus (Macropus) fuliginosus3 sites
- Macropus rufogriseus3 sites
- Mastacomys3 sites
- Metasthenurus newtonae3 sites
- Notechis3 sites
- Notomys3 sites
- Perameles gunnii3 sites
- Phascolarctos cinereus3 sites
- Procoptodon gilli3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Varanus varius, 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
2 references- Pleistocene fossil vertebrate sites of the South East region of South Australia3
- Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. IV. Reptiles1
Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Varanus varius
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Bidgee
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0 au
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Varanus varius was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itVaranus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Shaw 1790