REPTILIA: SQUAMATA: VARANIDAE: Varanus

Varanus mertensi Glauert, 1951

Merten's monitor

Photos & text by Dr. Robert Sprackland, with information supplied by Bernd Eidenmüller and Peter Krauss. Specimen at right photographed at Australia Zoo, Beerwah, Queensland.

Range:

Diagnosis: Monitors with a strongly compressed tail, a dark brownish body with tiny light spots (often indistinct) and dorsally positioned nostrils.

Description: 

Natural History:

Reproduction: Lays eggs. Juveniles are more brightly colored than adults, often with blue-gray jaws. The young specimens shown here were hatched and raised by Bernd Eidenmüller in Germany.

Taxonomy & Relationships: This monitor was named in honor of the late Prof. Dr. Robert Mertens of the Senckenberg Museum, the most influential varanid taxonomist of the 20th century.

Variation:

Additional Comments: These semiaquatic lizards have a passive flap of loose white skin inside the nostril, along its floor. When the lizards dive, air pressure from the mouth forces the flaps upward, filling the nostril openings.

Type Specimen:

 Literature:  Click on book to order

Cogger, Harold. 1999. Reptiles and amphibians of Australia. 6th edition. Ralph Curtis Books. ISBN: 0-88359-048-4.

Cogger, Harold. 1995. Reptiles and amphibians of Australia. 5th edition. Ralph Curtis Books. ISBN: 0-8014-2739-8.

Ehmann, Harald. 1992. Encyclopedia of Australian animals: Reptiles. Angus & Robertson. ISBN: 0-207-17379-6.

Eidenmüller, Bernd. 1997. Warane: Lebensweise, Pflege, Zucht. Herpeton, Offenbach. In German. ISBN: 3-9802892-7-3. 

Greer, Allen. 1989. The biology & evolution of Australian lizards. Surrey Beatty & Sons. ISBN: 0-949324-21-3.

Hoser, Raymond. 1989. Australian reptiles & frogs. Pierson & Co. ISBN: 0-947068-08-2.

Sprackland, Robert. 1992. Giant Lizards. TFH Publications. ISBN: 0-86622-634-6.

Storr, Glenn, L. Smith and R. Johnstone. 1983. Lizards of Western Australia II: Dragons and Monitors. Western Australian Museum. ISBN: 0-7244-9482-0.