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Submitted: May 5, 2012
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Sail-backed monitor lizardby ~JWArtwork

Digital Art / Drawings / Animals

Spinovaranus africanus, a 3 to 4 meter long sail-backed monitor lizard with an upright walking position and a slightly bird-like skull build. The sail is much smaller in females and serves in the males as a mating display. They are coastal predators and feed on mammal-sharks and other small to medium sized fish, which live in the shallow waters between the stones. It cares for its young and has a throat-sack in which it stores food to feed to its young at a later moment, just like some birds. It lived some 132 million years from now at the South-African coast during the Palalom.

P.S. If you like this, become a member (request is automatically approved) of the Neozoic-Project-group, to see more of this appear in the future, or even design your own Neozoic creatures and submit to the group!

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~electreel May 6, 2012

I think these varanids could be far more diverse. Btw, are there any large species mammals in Africa?... or perhaps reptiles?

~JWArtwork May 6, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Yes, on Lemuria there are other ones. This one split off earlier and is the only one that remains on the mainland. Lemuria is also the last kingdom of mammals. Reptiles haven't taken over the niches of big creatures here, just like in Australia and South-America mammals didn't take over from the reptiles a long time in the Tertiary.

In the rest of Africa, monitomammalians and relatives rule, though mammals are surely present. Some types of mammal, e.g. the crocoracoons, are doing extremely well.

~palaeorigamipete May 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Return of the dimetrodon!

~JWArtwork May 6, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Yes!

I was actually inspired by this one: [link]

~palaeorigamipete May 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I see! It definitely looks more like the basilisk's sail than dimetrodon's!

~JWArtwork May 6, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Yes it does!

~palaeorigamipete May 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

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