- Desert Monitor
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Desert Monitor 
Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Order: Squamata Suborder: Lacertilia Family: Varanidae Genus: Varanus Subgenus: Psammosaurus Species: V. griseus Binomial name Varanus griseus
(Daudin, 1803)The Desert Monitor, Varanus griseus, is a species of monitor lizard found in North Africa and western Asia.
Contents
Description
The teeth of Varanus griseus are acute and compressed. Its snout is depressed at the end, as long as the distance from the anterior border of the orbit to anterior border of the ear; canthus rostralis distinct. Its nostril is an oblique slit, about four times as distant from end of the snout as from orbit. Digits are rather short. Tail round or slightly compressed. The scales on its head, including supra-oculars are very small, granular, subequal. The scales on the upper surface are small, smooth or feebly keeled; those on the sides of the neck generally conical in adult specimens. Abdominal scales of the Desert Monitor are smooth, in 110 to 125 transverse series (counted from collar-fold to groin). Its caudal scales more or less distinctly keeled; no caudal crest. Greyish yellow, sometimes with more or less distinct brown cross bars on the back and tail and brown streaks along the sides of the neck. Young monitors have round yellow spots and dark brown cross bars and temporal and cervical streaks; a few brown lines across the snout and short vertical brown lines on the lower lip.[1]
Notes
From snout to vent 55 cm (1 foot 10 inches); tail 1 m 93 (6 feet 4 inches).
Distribution
Jordan, Turkey (from Urfa) [Eiselt (1970), Böhme (1973)] Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Arabia, Oman, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran (including Kavir desert), Pakistan, NW India
Type locality: Dardsha, coast of the Caspian Sea
Skull of Varanus griseus
Notes
- ^ Boulenger, G. A. (1890). Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.
References
- Tsellarius, A. Y.;Cherlin, V. A.;Menshikov, Y. A. 1991 Preliminary report on the study of biology of Varanus griseus (Reptilia, Varanidae) in Middle Asia Herpetological Researches (1): 61-103
External links
- Varanus griseus at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database
- Photo of Desert Monitor
- Photo of Desert Monitor
- Monitor-lizards.net
Fossil species DolichosauridaeHelodermatidaeVaranidaeCategories:- Lizard stubs
- Monitor lizards
- Fauna of Central Asia
- Fauna of the Sahara
- Fauna of Turkey
- Fauna of Iran
- Fauna of Israel
- Fauna of Saudi Arabia
- Reptiles of Pakistan
- Reptiles of Africa
- Reptiles of India
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