Gould's Goanna

About the Gould's Goanna

The sand goanna (Varanus gouldii), also known commonly as Gould's monitor, the racehorse goanna, and the sand monitor, is a species of large Australian monitor lizard in the family Varanidae. John Edward Gray described the species in 1838 as Hydrosaurus gouldii, noting the source of the type specimen as "New Holland" and distinguishing the new varanid by "two yellow streaks on the sides of the neck" and small flat scales at the orbits.

An earlier description, Tupinambis endrachtensis Péron, F. 1807, was determined as likely to refer to this animal, but the epithet gouldii was conserved and a new specimen designated as the type. This neotype was obtained in 1997 at the near coastal Western Australian suburb of Karrakatta, and placed with the British Museum of Natural History. The decision of a nomenclatural commission (ICZN) was to issue an opinion suppressing the earlier name Tupinambis endrachtensis and the name Hydrosaurus ocellarius Blyth, 1868, that were unsatisfactory to some who had commented on the case, but provided taxonomic certainty for future revisions of the associated taxa.

The specific name, gouldii, is assumed to be a Latinised form of... Wikipedia →