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Varanus hooijeri

Extinct species of reptile From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Varanus hooijeri (also known as Flores Monitor) is an extinct species of a medium-sized monitor lizard, found in Liang Bua on Flores and possibly also Sumba in Indonesia, dating back to the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.

Quick facts Varanus hooijeri Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene, Scientific classification ...
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Discovery

It was described in 1958 by Leo Daniël Brongersma on the island of Flores in Indonesia.[1] In 2021, two maxilla bones from each having four teeth from Liang Lawuala on Sumba, were assigned to V. cf. hooijeri, suggesting that it inhabited Sumba as well.[2]

Description

Varanus hooijeri is a medium-sized varanid, at around 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long,[3] around the size of a living Nile monitor.[4] The teeth of V. hooijeri are blunt and wide (or bunodont). Unlike the sharp, curved teeth typically seen in other monitor lizards,[2] this has been assessed as adapted for a frugivore diet, supplemented by small mammals and insects.[2]

Paleoecology

Varanus hooijeri lived with another, much larger, monitor lizard, the living Komodo dragon. Due to its frugivore diet, it would have niche partitioned with a larger animal, although it may have been prey for the latter.

It also lived with the dwarf proboscidean Stegodon florensis,[5] the large stork Leptoptilos robustus,[6] the cat-sized Flores giant rat[7] and the dwarf hominid Homo floresiensis.[8]

Extinction

The youngest remains of the species date to the Holocene.[2][9]

References

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