King Commodos

The genus name Varanus was introduced in 1820 by German professor, Blasius Merrem. It is a latinization of the Arabic waran, the Egyptian name for the Nile monitor. (Egyptians believed that these lizards served as monitors, alerting people to the presence of crocodiles. ) 70 species and subspecies of Varanus have been described but only 50 species are currently recognized - Size is the most variable anatomical characteristic in the family (length varies from 0.32m to 3.5m) - All species are similar in appearance The family Varanidae includes the largest living lizards First mention of Komodo dragon in scientific literature - Peter Owens in 1912 mentions Varanus species of an unusual size from Komodo Island Common Names Komodo Dragon. (Komodo is the name of one of the islands on which they are found) Ora is a local name in the Mangarrai dialect. The Hindi name biscobra implies that it is twice as deadly as the cobra. The Malaysian name buaja darat means land crocodile. Members of the Varanidae family are commonly referred to varanids, monitors, or (in Australia) goannas. Phylogeny The oldest varanoid fossils (95 million years ago, Cretaceous) are related to the early mososaurs and snakes, lived in Europe and Asia Genus Varanus first recognized in the fossil record from about 34 million years ago (Late Eocene) (Homes et al.2010) -Fossils found in Egypt, dispersals followed into Europe, Asia, Australia A direct ancestor of the Komodo Dragon is the gigantic Pleistocene fossil Megalania prisca from Pleistocene deposits in eastern Australia