Megalania

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iMegalania

Prehistoric

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Lacertilia
Infraorder:	Platynota
Superfamily:	Varanoidea
Family:	Varanidae
Genus:	Varanus
Species:	V. prisca

Binomial name

Varanus prisca
(Richard Owen, 1860)

Megalania (Varanus prisca) is an extinct giant monitor lizard. It was one of the megafauna that roamed southern Australia, and appears to have become extinct around 40,000 years ago. Once thought to belong to a distinct monotypic genus and called Megalania prisca (which means “ancient giant butcher”), it is now recognized as a species in the genus Varanus, which encompasses all monitor lizards. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia would certainly have encountered living Megalania. The local name in Western Australia for this animal is Bungarra.

1 Size of the Megalania
2 Live Megalania
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Size of the Megalania

Megalania was a giant lizard, reaching maximum lengths of about 4.5-6 metres (15-20 feet long) and weighed around 1,000-1,300 pounds. Megalania was the largest land-dwelling lizard to have ever lived, and a fearsome predator as well as a scavenger. Judging from its size, Megalania would feed mostly on medium to large sized animals, including any of the giant marsupials like Diprotodon along with other reptiles, small mammals, and birds and their eggs and chicks. It had heavily built limbs and body and a large solid skull full with short blade-like teeth. Due to its size and similarities to the Komodo Dragon, a relationship between the two species has been suggested. In reality however, Megalania's closest relative is the perentie, Australia's largest lizard, not the Komodo Dragon.

[edit] Live Megalania

There have been numerous reports and rumors of living Megalania in Australia, and occasionally New Guinea, as recently as the mid 1990s. Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has stated that Megalania is still alive today, and it is only a matter of time until one comes in. Aside from stories and eyewitness accounts, the only evidence that Megalania might still be alive today is plaster casts of possible Megalania footprints that Gilroy made in 1979.

[edit] References

Wroe, S.: A review of terrestrial mammalian and reptilian carnivore ecology in Australian fossil faunas, and factors influencing their diversity: the myth of reptilian domination and its broader ramifications. Australian Journal of Zoology 50: 1–24. DOI:10.1071/ZO01053 PDF fulltext