The fossil record of the genus Varanus from the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia)

Davit Vasilyan; Maia Bukhsianidze

doi:10.7717/peerj.8322

The fossil record of the genus Varanus from the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia)

PeerJ. 2020 Jan 2:8:e8322. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8322. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Davit Vasilyan^{1

2}, Maia Bukhsianidze³

Affiliations

¹ JURASSICA Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland.
² Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
³ Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Abstract

The Southern Caucasus, with its special geographic position and complex topography, is a well-known biodiversity hotspot. However, the formation of this hotspot remains largely unstudied. To reveal this, a thorough study of the fossil record of the region is necessary. In the present paper, we describe for the first time fossil monitor lizards (Varanus sp.) from two late Miocene localities from the Southern Caucasus (Jradzor, Armenia and Tetri Udabno, Georgia). We suggest that both fossils belong to a small-sized monitor lizard, comparable to the present-day species found in Iran and the Middle East (e.g., Iraq, Saudi Arabian)-the most western part of the extant monitor lizards' Eurasian distribution range. Our finds show that the genus had a broad distribution in the Eastern Paratethyan region during the late Miocene. In addition, we provide the probable temperature ranges for fossil localities.

Keywords: Armenia; Georgia; Late Miocene; Palaeobiogeography; Palaeoclimate; Southern Caucasus; Varanus.

Grants and funding

This project was supported by the Shota Rustaveli Georgian Science Foundation, project #217626 for Maia Bukhsianidze. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.