Just Caught the Bluey Fever!

[amcurls]

I count 4 anterior temporals. I would say gigas gigas. As to sex ?.

[Richard.C]

perhaps a duel sex name for now,just to be safe,lol

monitor you arent calling this one half eastern are you,lol

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

monitor you arent calling this one half eastern are you,lol

[Fatal_S]

It looks like a younger version of the Aru Island indo James poster a while ago:
download/file.php?id=5162&mode=view
I never did say it looked like a proper indo I said it was interesting looking(unique).
I'm surprised that you call this a Merauke, but this ( gallery/image_page.php?album_id=1&image_id=52770 ) an indo
There is no single stripe going down the neck of this animal.
There appears to be solid black front legs with a couple of small speckles.
There are black spider-web marks toward the back of his head, side of his head(like you would see on Easterns), and small marks toward the nose/tip.

I think you've gone blind. It looks absolutely nothing that that Aru to me. The Aru has thick bands, lots of speckles, a short tail and extreme markings on the face and head.

I'd say something about the second photo, but your link doesn't work

There is a single stripe, it's just very faded and hard to see. And very faint markings on the head are normal for Merauke, but for classics you don't want too see too heavily marked faces/heads.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I see some hints to it being Merauke, I'm not going to lie. But it looks more like a Indo to me
OP could you put up a poll saying Indo, Merauke, or other?

[Fatal_S]

Then point out how it looks like an Indo. Back yourself up. Statements are just opinions if you don't add any data or facts.

Also, that Aru has amazingly speckly front legs.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I'll write up something long, scientific, and fancy tomorrow then.

[Fatal_S]

You do that. Amcurls used the words "anterior temporals". This sounds smart, so I believe him more than I believe you (which isn't to say I believe him, but I do love those smart words).

[El Lobo]

It looks like a younger version of the Aru Island indo James poster a while ago:
download/file.php?id=5162&mode=view
I never did say it looked like a proper indo I said it was interesting looking(unique).
I'm surprised that you call this a Merauke, but this ( gallery/image_page.php?album_id=1&image_id=52770 ) an indo
There is no single stripe going down the neck of this animal.
There appears to be solid black front legs with a couple of small speckles.
There are black spider-web marks toward the back of his head, side of his head(like you would see on Easterns), and small marks toward the nose/tip.

I think you've gone blind.

A common affliction amongst young teenage males.

[Fatal_S]

It looks like a younger version of the Aru Island indo James poster a while ago:
download/file.php?id=5162&mode=view
I never did say it looked like a proper indo I said it was interesting looking(unique).
I'm surprised that you call this a Merauke, but this ( gallery/image_page.php?album_id=1&image_id=52770 ) an indo
There is no single stripe going down the neck of this animal.
There appears to be solid black front legs with a couple of small speckles.
There are black spider-web marks toward the back of his head, side of his head(like you would see on Easterns), and small marks toward the nose/tip.

I think you've gone blind.

A common affliction amongst young teenage males.

That and hairy palms...

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I'm guessing,"semper puer ML semper puer", applies here too?

[Richard.C]

apparently,i wouldnt know for sure as im not the most experienced there,but common in older males to,well,so ive heard :p

[amcurls]

You do that. Amcurls used the words "anterior temporals". This sounds smart, so I believe him more than I believe you (which isn't to say I believe him, but I do love those smart words).

Don't give me credit for anything more than reading the key in the Bluetongue Bible. I do wonder is there a possibility of intergrades between Indos and Merukees.

[Richard.C]

i think the gigas clan needs a lot of work done still ,some indos have a more scincoidesy look to them
the variety is pretty amazing,theres a lot of island populations to,probably a few yet to be described forms to pop up down the track to

alot of the wild caughts could come from anywhere,usually collected all over the shop ,brought to exporters then shipped over,alot of the so called farm raisers are just wild caughts still,they use the farm raised quote to get by a loop hole to legally export them

its sometimes dubious calling them a certain form when locality data isnt known 100 percent,some forms may be called others to cover the fact of where they were actually collected

[amcurls]

I couldn't agree more. New Guinea is still pretty much terra incognito.

[Susann]

MERAUKE.
Is he a "clean and clear" Merauke with all the textbook traits? Probably not.
The only Indo trait I see are the darker anterior legs, but they are not solidly inky black...
Just to show you some variances, here are some of my Meraukes' legs. None of them have as dark a spotless black color on top, but otherwise some are very similar, in MY OPINION.
First, a couple of JAZZ, who has the more classic look:

IMG_3316.JPG

IMG_3329.JPG

J.J.

IMG_3314.JPG

XYLA

IMG_3320.JPG

MILO

IMG_3325.JPG

[Katrina]

Interesting discussion.

I'm ashamed to admit that I see ML's point. To me, not only the black legs but the entire body and face shape look Indo. The banding and colors look more Merauke, but the entire body shape and face shape looks more Indo to me. Try to compare the body / head shape to Susann's Merauke or every Indo out there (without worrying about the paint job) - I think it looks much more Indo like.

I think everyone is kind of over analysing it. It is an inbetweener, with some Merauke and some Indo characteristics. There are lots of them out there, stuff we can't accurately ID because they don't fit nicely into the few recognized species / subspecies from that area. It is probably more Merauke looking, but I do see ML's point.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I'm ashamed to admit that I see ML's point.

[Richard.C]

if it was farm raised,and actually bred there,some may actually do that,they could also have the odd cross result muddying it up

thats the tricky thing by going off looks,they can vary so much even from the same geographical area,same thing happens with easterns when folk presume to guess where they are from just looking at pics

i guessed meurake for another one recently,actually looked classic,except its legs were quite dark which was pointed out to me,hence i said gigas species for this one,some may need to go deeper into it to try and find what it is

[El Lobo]

I couldn't agree more. New Guinea is still pretty much terra incognito.

ML should have detected this, being a Latin student and all.

The description of New Guinea should read terra incognita meaning unknown land; incognito means having identity disguised such as with an assumed name.

On the subject of identifying the skink. Has anyone considered it may be the offspring of those theoretic Meraukes that ran into the hills at the time of the 2004 tsunami to mix with their higher altitude relatives?