Varanus (Hapturosaurus)

Hapturosaurus, sometimes known as the tree monitors, is a subgenus of lizards, consisting of slender-bodied arboreal monitor lizards mostly found in the tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Taxonomy

The type species is the green tree monitor, originally designated by Hermann Schlegel in 1844 as Monitor prasinus. Robert Mertens placed tree monitors within the subgenus Odatria in 1942. In 1988, tree monitors were instead placed within Euprepiosaurus alongside the mangrove monitors. Nevertheless, there was a distinction between mangrove and tree monitors that was clear even then, so Euprepriosaurus was commonly considered to consist of two species complexes, i.e., the V. indicus complex and the V. prasinus complex. In 2016, Yannick Bucklitsch, Wolfgang Böhme, and André Koch found the two species complexes sufficiently morphologically, ecologically, and biologically distinct, and so all species within the V. prasinus complex were moved under a newly erected subgenus, i.e., Hapturosaurus. Hapturosaurus diverged from Euprepriosaurus during the late Miocene.

Etymology

The name Hapturosaurus is derived from the Greek words "haptein" (to grasp), "ouros" (tail), and "sauros" (lizard), in reference to the prehensile tails of tree monitors.

Ecology

Behaviour

All species are highly arboreal. In captivity, tree monitors demonstrate the capacity to play, in the form of destructive behaviour such as systematically shredding the leaves on plants with teeth and claws.