Varanid limbs are proportionate and very robust. Varanids use these limbs for tearing up the soil to make their homes, or for ripping into termite mounds, climbing trees, wrestling prey and for covering great distances overland.
The necks of varanids are very long and birdlike (though varanids tend to keep their necks straighter than birds). Their jaws contain an extra joint on the mandible that allows them to swallow large and bulky food items.The varanid tongue is very interesting as it is extremely long and deeply forked. It has also lost the rough dorsal surface that is typically found in other saurians. In fact, upon first glance, the varanid tongue looks practically identical to a snake's. This tongue is used in conjunction with the the Jacobson's Organ to give monitors a highly developed sense of smell.
Along with these changes the hyoid apparatus (the free floating bone that anchors the tongue in vertebrates) is stronger and more mobile than in other lizards, having a well defined joint between the ceratohyal and the anterior process. as well as a series of distinct muscles inserted on the anterior hyobranchial region.Varanid tongues do not aid in the transport of food, instead varanids employ their modified hyobranchial apparatus.
Varanid tails, unlike iguanian and autarchoglosian tails, do not have the break lines in the caudal vertebrae which allows for tail separation, so varanids cannot separate their tails. This is a good thing for them, since monitors use their tails for defense, balance and fat storage.
This keen bodyplan is just one of the reasons why varanids make excellent predators.