Earless monitor lizard
species of reptile
The earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis) is a semiaquatic, brown lizard native to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. It is the only living species in the family Lanthanotidae and is related to the true monitor lizards.
Taxonomy
The earless monitor lizard was described in 1878 by Franz Steindachner. The genus name Lanthanotus means "hidden ear" and the species name borneensis refers to its home island of Borneo. The uniqueness of the species was immediately recognized and Steindachner placed it in its own family, Lanthanotidae. In 1899, George Albert Boulenger relegated it to the family Helodermatidae, together with the beaded lizards and Gila monster, on the basis of morphological similarities. Further studies were conducted in the 1950s where it was found that although it is related to Helodermatidae, this relationship is relatively distant. The similarity is in part the result of convergent evolution and they should be recognized as separate families. Both are part of a broader Anguimorpha, but the relationship among the various families has been a matter of dispute. Several earlier studies have placed the earless monitor lizard together with Helodermatidae and Varanidae (true monitor lizards) in Varanoidea.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earless monitor lizard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.