Big varanids (Patreon)

I said I'd do more squamates. Well, that montage needs BIG taxa to be added to the back - I won't be including mosasaurs in it (they're just too big, and they get their own montage in the squamate section anyway), but I decided to produce the biggest taxa that I need ... these big varanids. The smaller animal is a Komodo dragon, the bigger one is Varanus priscus, the beast formerly known as Megalania. These animals are to scale. A big Komodo dragon can be 3 m, and - while there's some disagreement and some competing reconstructions - V. priscus almost definitely reached about twice this size.

The Komodo dragon has been redrawn from photos (the proportionally short tail is a characteristic feature of this species); the V. priscus is mostly hypothetical but has its proportions based on those of big Komodo dragons. I deliberately gave it a more massively built posterior section to the skull and shorter, stockier digits than other monitors. The colour scheme is totally hypothetical but loosely based on that of V. salvator, a possibility inspired by suggestions that priscus and salvator are close relatives. I think the reconstruction looks pretty good. 

Next: to add these animals to the large squamate montage...