FR said: "Newly discovered, actually means, to be newly identified by current science. The animals have been in there for many thousands of years, in most cases, they are been seen by man, collected by man, killed, consumed, exported etc. Just not identified by current(newest methods) science."



I don't see where anybody was claiming otherwise... In fact if you read the actual paper describing the species, which I seriously doubt you have, you will see that the authors discuss the local name given for the monitor as "soa soa hitam" ("black monitor" in Indonesian).



FR said: "In the case of varanids, there are no teams of varanid biologist searching the world for new species."



You are wrong, and I suggest that you get your facts straight before posting something like this. The two authors of this species' description have been traveling throughout the Moluccas, Indonesia for the past two years, surveying many of the thousands of islands in this region, learning which species dwell on each island, and studying aspects of their ecology. There has already been a published report on some of this research (much much more to come) in the current issue of Biawak



varanidae.org/Vol4_No1_Weijola.pdf



FR said: "Its also nothing against varanid biologist, they tend to work on known species, not wasting their time with the unknown."



Again, while this may have been true in the past, as I've mentioned above, the two authors to this species description have indeed been "wasting their time with the unknown".



FR said: "Back to the subject of this thread, there is a huge difference between newly described and how long they have been known of by man."



Again, aren't you stating the obvious here? It is obvious that this species did not magically appear when, and only when the authors landed on Sanana for field research... Nobody is claiming otherwise (the authors even acknowledge that it was known by locals).



Is this an attempt to discredit their discovery of this species? If you read the description, you will find that Varanus obor was discovered independently through the course of field work, not through fuzzy leads from animal collectors.



Do you actually have something constructive to contribute to this discussion about the discovery and description of this new species, or do you just want to play "armchair taxonomy critic" from your home computer? Have you ever been to the Moluccas? Seen any monitors there?

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