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Reptiles Database
Order Squamata
Suborder Anguinomorpha
Superfamily Varanoidea
Family Lanthanotidae (Earless Monitors)
Only one species, the earless monitor (Lanthanotus borneensis).
Lanthanotus borneensis, © Alain Compost, by permission.
Appearance: Slender, elongated lizard with short limbs and heterogenous scalation with underlying osteoderms; nostrils are moved back and upwards as an adaption to its semiaquatic lifestyle. Tiny eyes with moveable lids (lower lid transparent). No ear opening (name!).
Distribution: Endemic to Borneo (Indonesia).
Habitat: In and near small forest streams and swamps.
Size: 30-43 cm total length.
Food: Natural food mostly unknown; probably fish and invertebrates.
Reproduction: Oviparous.
Behaviour: Appears to be nocturnal, spending its diumal hours in burrows. At night, it forages on land and in the water, moving via undulatory locomotion in both habitats.
Name: From the Greek "lanthano" = hidden and "ous, otos" = ear.
List of genera:
References:
McDowell, Samuel Booker, Jr. & Bogert, Charles M. (1954)
The systematic position of Lanthanotus and the affinities of the
anguinomorphan lizards.
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 105 (1):
1-142
Mertens, Robert (1961)
Lanthanotus: an important lizard in evolution.
Sarawak Museum Journal 10 (17-18, new ser.): 283-285
Sprackland, Robert G. (1976)
A summary of observations of the earless monitor, Lanthanotus
borneensis.
Sarawak Museum Journal 24 (40-41 (new ser.)): 323-32x
Underwood, G. (1957)
Lanthanotus and the anguinomorphan lizards: a critical review.
Copeia (1): 20-30.
Zug,G.R.; Vitt, L.J. & Caldwell, J.P. (2001)
Herpetology,
2nd ed.
Academic Press San Diego, London, [...]XIV + 630 pp.