''Varanops'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Early Permian 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawan ...

varanopid Varanopidae is an extinct family of amniotes that resembled monitor lizards and may have filled a similar niche, hence the name. Typically, they are considered synapsids that evolved from an '' Archaeothyris''-like synapsid in the Late Carbonifer ...

synapsid Synapsids + (, 'arch') > () "having a fused arch"; synonymous with ''theropsids'' (Greek, "beast-face") are one of the two major groups of animals that evolved from basal amniotes, the other being the sauropsids, the group that includes reptil ...

s known from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was first named by

Samuel Wendell Williston Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tr ...

1911 A notable ongoing event was the race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * ...

as a second species of '' Varanosaurus'', ''Varanosaurus brevirostris''. In

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

, Samuel W. Williston reassigned it to its own genus and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...

is ''Varanops brevirostris''. Varanops NT small

Discovery

''V. brevirostris'' is known from the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

FMNH UC 644, a three-dimensionally preserved nearly complete and articulated

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

including a nearly complete

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

and

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

s. It was collected in the Indian Creek, 35 site (=''

Cacops ''Cacops'' ("ugly look" for its strange appearance), is a genus of dissorophid temnospondyls from the Kungurian stage of the early Permian of the United States. ''Cacops'' is one of the few olsoniforms (dissorophids and the larger trematopids) ...

'' Bonebed), from the

Arroyo Formation The Arroyo Formation is a geologic formation in Texas.Baylor County Baylor County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,465. Its county seat is Seymour. History In 1858, the Texas Legislature established Baylor County, naming it for Henry Weidner Baylor, a ...

of Texas, dating to the early

Kungurian In the geologic timescale, the Kungurian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is the latest or upper of four subdivisions of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Kungurian lasted between and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Ar ...

stage of the

Cisuralian The Cisuralian is the first series/epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded by the Pennsylvanian and followed by the Guadalupian. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan and ...

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided ...

, about 279.5-272.5

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago ...

. Many well preserved specimens from the same locality and horizon of the type specimen, including FMNH UR 2423, nearly complete skull and mandibles, MCZ 1926, complete skull and mandibles and FMNH P 12841, partial skeleton, are referred to ''V. brevirostris''. One articulated skeleton with bite marks was found in southwest of Abilene (Arroyo Formation), Taylor County of Texas. Specimens ( OMNH 73156-73178) of ''V. brevirostris'' were also collected in the

Richards Spur Richards Spur is a Permian fossil locality located at the Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry north of Lawton, Oklahoma. The locality preserves clay and mudstone fissure fills of a karst system eroded out of Ordovician limestone and dolomite, with the ...

, from the Garber Formation (Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry) of the Sumner Group, Comanche County of Oklahoma, dating to the same age. Those remains came from at least three individuals, and represents the first varanodontine material from the Richards Spur. Finally, TMM 43628-1, a partial skeleton with nearly complete skull, was collected in the Mud Hill locality, from the

Vale Formation The Vale Formation is a geologic formation in Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period. Diplocaulus recurvatus is one of the creatures discovered there. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Texas * Paleont ...

of the Clear Fork Group, Taylor County, also dating to the same age.

Description

''Varanops'' was a large pelycosaur, around the size of the modern

monitor lizard Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species. About 80 species are rec ...

s. It was about long, and had large limbs and sharp, backward-curving teeth. It was one of many agile, voracious

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

s among pelycosaurs. Even though it was large for its time, ''Varanops'' was very small compared to the dinosaurs that came much later.

Classification

''Varanops'' is the type genus of the family

Varanopidae Varanopidae is an extinct family of amniotes that resembled monitor lizards and may have filled a similar niche, hence the name. Typically, they are considered synapsids that evolved from an '' Archaeothyris''-like synapsid in the Late Carbonife ...

Cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

analysis performed by Nicolás E. Campione and Robert R. Reisz in 2010 suggests that ''Varanops'' is a derived varanodontine, sister taxon to the clade formed by ''

Varanodon ''Varanodon'' is an extinct genus of amniotes from the family Varanopidae. It reached a length of about . It lived during the early late Permian period. See also * List of pelycosaurs This list of pelycosaurs is an attempt to create a compreh ...

'' and ''

Watongia ''Watongia'' is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsids from Middle Permian of Oklahoma. Only one species has been described, ''Watongia meieri'', from the Chickasha Formation. It was assigned to family Gorgonopsidae by OlsonOlson, E.C. 197 ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2498998 Varanopids Prehistoric synapsid genera Cisuralian synapsids of North America Taxa named by Samuel Wendell Williston Cisuralian genus first appearances Cisuralian genus extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1911