What is Megalania?
{{Taxobox | colour = lightblue | name = ''Megalania'' | fossil_range = Late [[Pleistocene]] | image = Varanus priscus Melbourne Museum.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = ''Megalania'' skeletal reconstruction on [[Melbourne]] Museum steps | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[Sauropsida]] | ordo = [[Squamata]] | familia = [[Varanidae]] | genus = ''Varanus'' | binomial = ''Varanus priscus'' | binomial_authority = Owen 1859}} '''''Megalania''''' (''Varanus prisca'') was a giant [[monitor lizard]] that lived in southern [[Australia]]. It was part of a species of [[Australian megafauna|megafauna]] that lived during the [[Pleistocene]], and appears to have disappeared around 40,000 years ago. The first [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] settlers of Australia may have encountered living ''Megalania''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3046.shtml|title=Megalania, giant ripper lizard|work=BBC Science & Nature|accessdate=20 May 2013|archive-date=20 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220081336/http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3046.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Megalania'' is the largest [[Terrestrial animal|land-based]] [[lizard]] known to have existed. Judging from its size, ''Megalania'' would have fed mostly upon medium- to large-sized animals, including any of the giant marsupials like ''[[Diprotodon]]'' . ==Size== [[File:Varanus priscus skull.jpg|thumb|right|250px|''Megalania'' skull, about 74 [[centimeter|cm]] (29 [[Inch|in]]) long, at Museum of Science, [[Boston]]]] Ralph Molnar in 2004, determined a range of possible sizes for ''Megalania''. He did this by scaling up from dorsal vertebrae, after he determined a relationship between dorsal vertebrae length and total body length. If it had a long thin tail like the [[Lace monitor]] (''Varanus varius''), then it would have reached a length of {{convert|7.9|m|ft}}. If its tail-to-body proportions were more similar to that of the [[Komodo dragon]], then a length of around {{convert|