Megalania
| Megalania | ||||||||||||
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Skeletal reconstruction of Varanus priscus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Varanus priscus | ||||||||||||
| ( Owen , 1860) | ||||||||||||
Megalania ( Varanus priscus , Syn . : Megalania prisca ) is a species of monitor lizards from the Pleistocene of Australia that became extinct about 45,000 years ago . Megalania reached a length of up to seven meters. Their maximum weight is estimated at over 1000 kilograms. The species was first scientifically described by Richard Owen in 1860 .
description
Megalania was a very strong and compactly built monitor lizard, which even in relation to the already very stocky Komodo dragon had a rather short tail and extremely strong limbs, the small central crest on the head, which is not known in any other monitor species, was also striking.
distribution
Megalania was one of the dominant predators in Pleistocene Australia , along with the large carnivorous marsupials such as Thylacoleo carnifex and the terrestrial crocodile Quinkana, and even met the first Aborigines , who probably caused its extinction through their influence on the habitat . There was also a population on the island of New Guinea , north of Australia . For most of the Pleistocene, both land areas were united in a single land mass, called the Sahul .
Way of life
The monitor lizard may have lived and nourished itself in a similar way to the living Komodo dragon. Like the latter, Megalania was probably a stalker who ambushed its prey - small reptiles, birds and small or medium-sized marsupials such as kangaroos - but like today's monitor lizards, they did not disdain carrion on occasion . It is unclear whether Megalania also hunted the giant Diprotodons , which were larger than today's white rhinos - Megalania probably had the ability to do so.
If Megalania lived similarly to today's Komodo dragons, it may have had a similar hunting method for large animals. One hurtful bite is often enough to inactivate prey, as monitor lizards have venom glands in their jaws; According to recent studies, Komodo dragons also have venom glands in the lower jaw. Bitten victims often die quickly from poisoning , which among other things lowers the victim's blood pressure and causes them to fall into a kind of shock. The victims can then be scented and located. Based on anatomical comparisons, Megalania may also have had the ability to bite with a paralyzing poison. Since estimates even speak of masses of up to 2000 kilograms and body lengths of seven meters, these giant monitors would be the largest poisonous animals that ever lived on earth.
Megalania in cryptozoology
Cryptozoologists collected about 30 reports of encounters with unusually large monitor lizards, which they interpret as evidence of the continued existence of Varanus priscus . The size of a monitor lizard is difficult to estimate in a fleeting encounter, which is why paleontologists see encounters with normal, certainly large monitor lizards in the reports, but their size has been misjudged. Furthermore, cryptozoologists refer to references to Megalania in the myths of the Aborigines , which mostly simply refer to lizards, e.g. B. a giant monitor called “whowie”, which was six meters long and is said to have had three pairs of legs. It cannot be completely ruled out that memories of Megalania from the first settlement to this day have been preserved in myths, but it is not clear whether these could have been inspired by Megalania or by other monitor lizards.
literature
- Extinct Animals - Megalania prisca. South Australian Parks and Reserves, Department for Environment and Heritage
Web links
- Megalania, giant ripper lizard. BBC - Science & Nature - Wildfacts
Individual evidence
- ↑ The End of Australia's Great Animals - Did Humans Start Species Extinction 45,000 Years Ago? , Deutschlandfunk , January 3, 2007
- ↑ s. Literature : South Australian Parks and Reserves, Department for Environment and Heritage (English)
- ↑ Bryan G. Fry, Stephen Wroe, Wouter Teeuwisse et al .: A central role for venom in predation by Varanus komodoensis (Komodo Dragon) and the extinct giant Varanus (Megalania) priscus. In: Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences , Volume 106, Number 22, June 2, 2009, pages 8969-8974; doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0810883106 .
- ^ R. Gilroy: Mysterious Australia . Adventures Unlimited / Nexus Publishing 1995. ISBN 064625393X
- ^ RW Smith: Aborigines . Random House, London 1930 (1996 edition)
- ^ Ralph E. Molnar: Dragons in the Dust: The Palaeobiology of the Giant Monitor Lizard Megalania . Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis 2004. ISBN 0-253-34374-7