The More You Know
Username: Scaramouche Fandango
Pref. List: Bog, plume, waterscrew, sphagnum
Fun fact!: Finally, I can't
not talk about Megalania,
Varanus priscus. This massive monitor was the largest land lizard to ever exist (mosasaurs, which are literally just lizards, but wet, could get larger). It's a sister taxon to the Komodo dragon, which was long believed to be an example of island gigantism. However, looking at the massive Megalania, it's more likely that it's an example of island
dwarfism. Megalania went extinct about 50,000 years ago, and it's likely that aboriginal Australian people interacted with them, since Australia was first populated by humans around 70,000 years ago.
Source: Temporal overlap of humans and giant lizards (Varanidae; Squamata) in Pleistocene Australia