Belongs within: Anguiformes.
The Varanidae, monitor lizards, are a group of lizards found in warmer parts of the Old World, characterised by a long, slender neck together with a long, strong tail, pentadactyl limbs with a strong claw on each digit, a covering of small, juxtaposed scales, and a long, deeply bifid tongue. Recent species have generally been assigned to a single broad genus Varanus.
Varanidae
|--Iberovaranus Hoffstetter 1969RB05
|--Telmasaurus grangeri Gilmore 1943B93
`--Varanus Merrem 1820DK14 [incl. Megalania Owen 1859D07]
| i. s.: *V. (Varanus) varius (White 1790) [=Lacerta varia]DK14
| V. albigularisL35
| V. baritji King & Horner 1987C18
| V. bushi Aplin, Fitch & King 2006C18
| V. caudolineatus Boulenger 1885C18
| V. doreanus (Meyer 1874)C18
| V. finschi Böhme, Horn & Ziegler 1994 [=V. doreanus finschi]C18
| V. flavescensUSDI77
| V. giganteus (Gray 1845)C18
| V. gilleni Lucas & Frost 1895C18
| V. glauerti Mertens 1957C18
| V. glebopalma Mitchell 1955C18
| V. gouldii (Gray 1838)ADD08
| |--V. g. gouldiiC18
| `--V. g. flavirufusC18
| V. hamersleyensis Maryan, Oliver et al. 2014C18
| V. hofmanni Roger 1898RB05
| V. indicus (Daudin 1802)C18
| V. keithhornei Wells & Wellington 1985C18
| V. kingorum Storr 1980C18
| V. komodoensis Ouwens 1912DK14
| V. mertensi Glauert 1951C18
| V. mitchelli Mertens 1958C18
| V. nebulosusVRC01
| V. niloticusD56
| ‘Tupinambis’ ornatus Daudin 1803M54
| V. ‘ornatus’ Gray 1845 non Daudin 1803M54
| V. panoptes Storr 1980C18
| |--V. p. panoptesC18
| |--V. p. horniC18
| `--V. p. rubidusC18
| V. pilbarensis Storr 1980C18
| V. prasinus (Schlegel 1839)C18
| V. primordius Mertens 1942C18
| V. priscus [=Megalania prisca; incl. Notiosaurus dentatus]F71
| V. pronini Zerova & Ckhikvadze 1986RB05
| V. punctatusF13
| V. rosenbergi Mertens 1957C18
| V. rudicollisGWN71
| V. rusingensis Clos 1995RB05
| V. scalaris Mertens 1941C18
| |--V. s. scalarisC18
| `--V. s. similisC18
| V. semiremex Peters 1869C18
| V. spenceri Lucas & Frost 1903C18
| V. storri Mertens 1966C18
| |--V. s. storriC18
| `--V. s. oceatusC18
| V. timorensisC18
| V. tristis (Schlegel 1839)C18
| |--V. t. tristisC18
| `--V. t. orientalis Fry 1913C18, F13 [=V. punctatus var. orientalisF13]
| V. tsukamotoi Kishida 1929TYM08
|--+--V. exanthematicusBG20
| `--V. (Psammosaurus) griseus (Daudin 1803)M54, BG20, M54 [=Tupinambis griseusM54]
| |--V. g. griseus (see below for synonymy)M54
| |--V. g. caspius (Eichwald 1931) [=Psammosaurus caspius; incl. V. caspicus Gray 1845]M54
| `--V. g. koniecznyi Mertens 1954 (see below for synonymy)M54
`--+--V. (Odatria Gray 1838)DK14
| |--V. (O.) acanthurus Boulenger 1885DK14, BG20, DK14
| | |--V. a. acanthurusDK14
| | |--V. a. brachyurusC18
| | `--V. a. insulanicusDK14
| |--V. (O.) brevicauda Boulenger 1898DK14
| |--V. (O.) eremius Lucas & Frost 1895DK14
| `--V. (O.) sparnus Doughty, Kealley et al. 2014DK14
`--+--V. bengalensisBG20
`--V. salvatorBG20
Inorganic: Varanus salvator protominilorientalus Okamura 1987O87
Varanus griseus griseus (Daudin 1803) [incl. Psammosaurus arabicus Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1899, V. arenaceus Gervais 1848, Tupinambis arenarius Geoffroy 1827, V. scincus Merrem 1820, V. terrestris Schinz 1834]M54
Varanus griseus koniecznyi Mertens 1954 [=V. ornatus Carlleyle 1869 nec Tupinambis ornatus Daudin 1803 nec V. ornatus Gray 1845]M54
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[ADD08] Aplin, K., S. Donnellan & J. Dell. 2008. The herpetofauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 39–53.
[B93] Benton, M. J. 1993. Reptilia. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 681–715. Chapman & Hall: London.
[BG20] Burbrink, F. T., F. G. Grazziotin, R. A. Pyron, D. Cundall, S. Donnellan, F. Irish, J. S. Keogh, F. Kraus, R. W. Murphy, B. Noonan, C. J. Raxworthy, S. Ruane, A. R. Lemmon, E. M. Lemmon & H. Zaher. 2020. Interrogating genomic-scale data for Squamata (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) shows no support for key traditional morphological relationships. Systematic Biology 69 (3): 502–520.
[C18] Cogger, H. G. 2018. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia updated 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood.
[D56] Dawes, B. 1956. The Trematoda with special reference to British and other European forms. University Press: Cambridge.
[D07] Dixon, D. 2007. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Hermes House: London.
[DK14] Doughty, P., L. Kealley, A. Fitch & S. C. Donnellan. 2014. A new diminutive species of Varanus from the Dampier Peninsula, western Kimberley region, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 29 (2): 128–140.
[F71] Fletcher, H. O. 1971. Catalogue of type specimens of fossils in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Australian Museum Memoir 13: 1–167.
[F13] Fry, D. B. 1913. On a Varanus and a frog from Burnett River, Queensland, and a revision of the variations in Limnodynastes dorsalis, Gray. Records of the Australian Museum 10 (2): 17–34, pls 1–3.
[GWN71] Gorman, G. C., A. C. Wilson & M. Nakanishi. 1971. A biochemical approach towards the study of reptilian phylogeny: evolution of serum albumin and lactic dehydrogenase. Systematic Zoology 20 (2): 167–185.
[L35] Lawrence, R. F. 1935. The prostigmatic mites of South African lizards. Parasitology 27 (1): 1–45.
[M54] Mertens, R. 1954. Über die Rassen des Wüstenwarans (Varanus griseus). Senckenbergiana Biologica 35 (5-6): 353–357.
[O87] Okamura, C. 1987. New facts: Homo and all Vertebrata were born simultaneously in the former Paleozoic in Japan. Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory 15: 347–573.
[RB05] Rage, J.-C., & S. Bailon. 2005. Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the late early Miocene (MN 4) of Béon 1 (Montréal-du-Gers, southwestern France). Geodiversitas 27 (3): 413–441.
[TYM08] Tennent, W. J., M. Yasuda & K. Morimoto. 2008. Lansania Journal of arachnology and zoology—a rare and obscure Japanese natural history journal. Archives of Natural History 35 (2): 252–280.
[USDI77] United States Department of the Interior. 1977. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants—republication of list of species. Federal Register 42: 36420–36431.
[VRC01] Vickaryous, M. K., A. P. Russell & P. J. Currie. 2001. Cranial ornamentation of ankylosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora): reappraisal of developmental hypotheses. In: Carpenter, K. (ed.) 2001. The Armored Dinosaurs pp. 318–340. Indiana University Press.