re: Dominant Mesozoic varanids?

[Phillip Bigelow <bh162@scn.org>]

larrydunn@hotmail.com wrote:


>Were there any varanids in the Mesozoic comparable in size to Megalania
>prisca (or was that grand fellow a Meganesian fluke)?  If so, where have
>they been found and when did they live?  Is there any evidence to
>indicate that, in certain special environments (islands), lizards may
>have been the top predators as they were in Pleistocene "Australia,"
>despite the presence of dinosaurs (I'm talking post-Triassic, of
>course)?

>Larry


Larry,

Check out this URL:

http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/misc/hellcreek.html

Scroll down to the "Lower Vertebrates" section of the lists.
_Palaeosaniwa canadensis_ was a whopper.
 
                 <pb>
p.s.  I should be sending Jeff a new http version of this soon.