Varanus hooijeri is an extinct species of medium-sized monitor lizard found in Liang Bua on Flores and possibly also Sumba, dating to the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.
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 are blunt and wide (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 modern day Komodo dragon. Due to its frugivore diet it would have niche partitioned with the 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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^ Brongersma, L. D. (1958). "On an extinct species of the genus Varanus (Reptilia, Sauria) from the island of Flores". Zoologische Mededelingen. S2CID 86301714.
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^ a b c d Turvey, Samuel T.; Crees, Jennifer J.; Hansford, James; Jeffree, Timothy E.; Crumpton, Nick; Kurniawan, Iwan; Setiyabudi, Erick; Guillerme, Thomas; Paranggarimu, Umbu; Dosseto, Anthony; van den Bergh, Gerrit D. (2017-08-30). "Quaternary vertebrate faunas from Sumba, Indonesia: implications for Wallacean biogeography and evolution". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 284 (1861): 20171278. doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.1278. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 5577490. PMID 28855367.
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^ Conrad, Jack L.; Balcarcel, Ana M.; Mehling, Carl M. (2012-08-10). "Earliest Example of a Giant Monitor Lizard (Varanus, Varanidae, Squamata)". PLOS ONE. 7 (8): e41767. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...741767C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041767. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3416840. PMID 22900001.
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^ Pianka, Erick; King, Dennis; King, Ruth Allen (2004-09-21). Varanoid Lizards of the World. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34366-6.
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^ Van Den Bergh, G. D.; Awe, Rokhus Due; Morwood, M. J.; Sutikna, T.; Jatmiko; Wahyu Saptomo, E. (2008-05-01). "The youngest stegodon remains in Southeast Asia from the Late Pleistocene archaeological site Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia". Quaternary International. Insularity and its Effects. 182 (1): 16–48. Bibcode:2008QuInt.182...16V. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.02.001. ISSN 1040-6182.
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^ Meijer, Hanneke J. M.; Sutikna, Thomas; Wahyu Saptomo, E.; Tocheri, Matthew W. (July 2022). "More bones of Leptoptilos robustus from Flores reveal new insights into giant marabou stork paleobiology and biogeography". Royal Society Open Science. 9 (7): 220435. Bibcode:2022RSOS....920435M. doi:10.1098/rsos.220435. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 9277297. PMID 35845853.
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^ "The giant rat of Flores and its relatives east of Borneo and Bali. Bulletin of the AMNH". hdl:2246/568.
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^ "Homo floresiensis: Making Sense of the Small-Bodied Hominin Fossils from Flores | Learn Science at Scitable". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
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^ van den Bergh, G.D.; Meijer, H.J.M.; Due Awe, Rokhus; Morwood, M.J.; Szabó, K.; van den Hoek Ostende, L.W.; Sutikna, T.; Saptomo, E.W.; Piper, P.J.; Dobney, K.M. (November 2009). "The Liang Bua faunal remains: a 95k.yr. sequence from Flores, East Indonesia". Journal of Human Evolution. 57 (5): 527–537. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.015. PMID 19058833.
