Varanus griseus
(Daudin, 1803) · speciesAt a glance
Sources9 archives
Databases and archives Varanus griseus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation4 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility1 080 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System25 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI10 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics18 specimens↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The desert monitor (Varanus griseus) is a species of monitor lizards of the order Squamata found living throughout North Africa and Central and South Asia. The desert monitor is carnivorous, feeding on a wide range of vertebrates and invertebrates.Bennett, D. ‘’Desert Monitor, Grey Monitor’’, A Little Book of Monitor Lizards, Viper Press, 1995
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology4
Life cycle & reproduction8
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Varanus griseus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
The complete instruction manual Varanus griseus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 401×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
How it livedPBDB
Record type1 105 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions10 of 17 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| SMNHTAUlocation not on record | 17 |
| CASlocation not on record | 16 |
| National Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 16 |
| Washington, US | 14 |
| South Kensington, GB | 11 |
| Brussels, BE | 4 |
| Berkeley, US | 4 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 3 |
| 3 | |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 3 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 3 |
| Cambridge, US | 2 |
| New Haven, US | 2 |
| Buenos Aires, AR | 2 |
| University of Nevada, Museum of Biologylocation not on record | 1 |
| Chongqing Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Los Angeles, US | 1 |
Where the DNA of Varanus griseus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.