Varanus (Euprepiosaurus)
Euprepiosaurus is a subgenus of monitor lizards found in the Malay Archipelago and northern Australia, which includes small to medium sized species.
Classification
In 1988, the tree monitors that now form the subgenus Hapturosaurus were instead placed within Euprepriosaurus alongside the mangrove monitors. Nevertheless, there was a distinction between mangrove and tree monitors that was clear even then, so Euprepriosaurus was commonly considered to consist of two species complexes, i.e., the V. indicus complex and the V. prasinus complex. In 2016, Yannick Bucklitsch, Wolfgang Böhme, and André Koch found the two species complexes sufficiently morphologically, ecologically, and biologically distinct, and so all species within the V. prasinus complex were moved under a newly erected subgenus, i.e., Hapturosaurus. Euprepriosaurus and Hapturosaurus diverged from each other during the late Miocene.Species complexes
Euprepiosaurus consists of three species complexes:- V. indicus species complex
- V. doreanus species complex
- V. jobiensis species complex