Dons' Tupinambis

[Thamnophis]

We have doubts about the species. Either it is Tupinambis teguixin or T. merianae.
It came from Argentina. Do not know the exact locality.
Could it also be T. merianae, James? What do you think.
Look at this picture...



We had some years ago a number of Callipistos flavipunctatus.
They were (and stayed) agressive. Nice lizards

[adamanteus]

Hi Fons,

If it definitely came from Argentina, one would naturally presume it to be T. merianae, but, I must admit I've never seen T. merianae so I can't say yes or no with any real certainty. Sorry. I think there is a Tegu forum, similar to ours (only for Tegus!!), you could try them. theTegu.com

Either way it's a fantastic looking animal. Can I have it?!!

[adamanteus]

Yes. It's definitely T.merianae! T. teguixin has a single loreal scale, (between the eye and the nostril), T. merianae has two. Therefore the beast in the picture is T. merianae.

[Gyre]

o__o That is the most frightening lizard I've ever seen.

It looks like it should be terrorizing some midevel village... Are they as big as it looks in theis picture? .. Just wondering.

[adamanteus]

Yes Hannah, they get to about 4'+ and heavily built too. So pretty big.

[Thamnophis]

Thanks James. T. merianae it is from now
I a making new infoplates for in the zoo and on this I named it already T. merianae. I will keep it this way.

@ Gyre... Yes, he is over 1 meter long and I guess it weighs betwen 15 and 20 kilo.
He' s rather gentle so nothing to be afraid for. When he opens his mouth your complete hand can get in

@ Adamanteus... No you can't have him.

[adamanteus]

What's his name? Have you any more pictures of him?

[Thamnophis]

His name is Maxima. We named him, when he was a juvenile and we thought it was a female, after our future queen that also comes from Argentina.

I shall take a look for other pictures.

[Thamnophis]

I have found three pics of Maxima on my computer.



Here he is asleep (like a big baby)

[Thamnophis]

Closeup from his eye-region.