Three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull of Varanus marathonensis from the Late Miocene of Batallones-3 (Madrid, Spain)
- Authors
- Abella P?rez, Juan
- Format
- Article
- Status
- publishedVersion
- Description
Monitor lizards (genus Varanus) are squamatereptiles that belong to family Varanidae and are cu-rrently distributed throughout Africa, Asia, andAustralia. The fossil record of this genus includes35 European localities, ranging in age from theearly Miocene (MN4) to the Pliocene (Delfino et al.,2012). However, most of the remains consist of iso-lated vertebrae that do not enable a species attri-bution. Although eight species of extinct monitorlizards have been described, only Varanus amnho-philis Conrad et al., 2012 from Samos (MN12, lateMiocene, Greece) and Varanus marathonensis Wei-thofer, 1888 from Pikermi (MN12, Greece) wereerected on the basis of diagnostic cranial remains(Delfino et al., 2012).Here we analyze the cranial remains of Vara-nus from the Vallesian (MN10, late Miocene) site ofBatallones-3 (Madrid, Spain), which has providedmore than one hundred postcranial and cranial re-mains of several individuals of this genus. We con-ducted a three-dimensional reconstruction of anexceptionally well-preserved skull (BAT-3'13-1921)housed in the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid(Spain), using computed tomography (CT) and vir-tual reconstruction techniques. Cranial material ofVaranus salvator was used as comparative material.Based on the above-mentioned material fromBatallones-3, we report the first virtual model of acomplete skull of an extinct monitor lizard. Basedon the presence of various diagnostic features (inparticular, the anterodorsal sloping surface of thefacial process of the maxilla is mediolaterally wideand hosts a deep concavity that is medially expan-ded), these remains are attributed to V. maratho-nensis, which has a wide temporal and geographicdistribution (MN7+8 to MN12, from Spain to Gre-ece; Delfino et al., 2012). Our results not only con-firm V. amnhophilis is a junior subjective synonymof V. marathonensis (see Delfino et al., 2012), butfurther enable to better characterize this speciesfrom the viewpoint of cranial morphology.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303033420_Three-dimensional_reconstruction_of_the_skull_of_Varanus_marathonensis_from_the_Late_Miocene_of_Batallones-3_Madrid_Spain
- Publication Year
- 2016
- Language
- eng
- Topic
- THREE-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
SKULL OF VARANUS MARATHONENSIS
LATE MIOCENE OF BATALLONES
MADRID
SPAIN
- Repository
- Repositorio SENESCYT
- Rights
- openAccess
- License
- closedAccess