earless monitor

I was not able to get a hold of the guy about the misfits box, so that will have to wait. I also forgot the local goth night was going on last night until I got home from work, so I lost some work time on that, but had a good time. It has a particularly good set list this time. I'm going to be losing Sunday too, I had failed to consider that.

Art goal 9hrs (given I am losing Sunday)

Today

Work on dragon

Animal

The earless monitor (Lanthanotus borneensis) is an extremely rare lizard from Borneo and the only member of the genus Lanthanotus. It is the last still living link between old world varanid monitor lizards such as the Komodo dragon and venomous new world Helodermatids like the gila monster. There has also been some speculation that they represent a group of lizards that eventually transitioned into snakes, due to their lack of an external ear, transparent lower eyelid (possible precursor to the eye cap), forked tongue, hinged lower jaw, teeth on their palatine and pterygoid bones, their tendency to shed their skin in one piece, and lack of ability to regenerate their tails. Earless monitors spend most of their time burrowing and have also been found under water, they are presumed to eat soft bodied animals like fish. They had at one time been thought to be venomous given their relation to Helodermatids, but that has proven to be false.

Close up of a specimen's head