Varanops is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Early Permian varanopid synapsid

Synapsid

Synapsids are a group of animals that includes mammals and everything more closely related to mammals than to other living amniotes. They are easily separated from other amniotes by having an opening low in the skull roof behind each eye, leaving a bony arch beneath each, accounting for their name...

 known from Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was first named by Samuel Wendell Williston

Samuel Wendell Williston

Samuel Wendell Williston was an American educator and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially , rather than arboreally . He was also an entomologist, specialising in Diptera.-Early life:Williston was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel Williston and...

 in 1911 as a second species of Varanosaurus

Varanosaurus

Varanosaurus is an extinct genus of early pelycosaur synapsid that lived during the early Permian .As its name implies, Varanosaurus looked very similar to present-day monitor lizards...

, Varanosaurus brevirostris. In 1914

1914 in paleontology

-Dinosaurs:* Eugene Stebinger became the first to identify the Two Medicine Formation and to formally described its first fossil finds, which were excavated the previous year.-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr...

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

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 is Varanops brevirostris.

V. brevirostris is known from the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 FMNH

Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...

 UC 644, a three-dimensionally preserved nearly complete and articulate

Articulate

Articulate may refer to:*Articulate *Articulate sign*Articulate sound*Joint, also known as articulation*Word modified by an article...

d skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

 including an nearly complete skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

 and mandible

Mandible

The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...

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

Cacops

Cacops is a genus of dissorophid temnospondyl that is known from the Early Permian of the central United States.It was about long and well adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle, with a heavily built skull, strong legs, a short tail, and a row of armor plates along its back...

 Bonebed), from the Arroyo Formation of the Clear Fork Group, Baylor County of Texas, dating to the early Kungurian

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 275.6 ± 0.7 and 270.6 ± 0.7 million years ago...

 stage of the Cisuralian Epoch

Epoch (geology)

An epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale based on rock layering. In order, the higher subdivisions are periods, eras and eons. We are currently living in the Holocene epoch...

, about 279.5-272.5 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

Museum of Comparative Zoology

The Museum of Comparative Zoology, full name "The Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology", often abbreviated simply to "MCZ", is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three museums which collectively comprise the Harvard Museum...

 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

Taylor County

Taylor County may refer to:* Taylor County, Florida* Taylor County, Georgia* Taylor County, Iowa* Taylor County, Kentucky* Taylor County, Texas* Taylor County, West Virginia* Taylor County, Wisconsin...

 of Texas. Specimens (OMNH

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Norman, Oklahoma, operated by the University of Oklahoma. It is currently housed in a building on Chautauqua Avenue that opened on May 1, 2000. The museum's exhibits include a Native American gallery and collections of...

 73156-73178) of V. brevirostris were also collected in the Richards Spur, from the Garber Formation (Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry) of the Sumner Group, Comanche County

Comanche County

Comanche County is the name of three counties in the United States:* Comanche County, Kansas* Comanche County, Oklahoma* Comanche County, Texas...

 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

Texas Memorial Museum

The Texas Memorial Museum is the main exhibit hall of the Texas Natural Science Center at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, USA....

 43628-1, a partial skeleton with nearly complete skull, was collected in the Mud Hill locality, from the Vale Formation of the Clear Fork Group, Taylor County, also dating to the same age.

Varanops is the type genus of the famiy Varanopidae

Varanopidae

Varanopidae was a family of synapsid "pelycosaurs" that resembled monitor lizards and might have had the same lifestyle, hence their name. No known varanopids developed a sail like Dimetrodon. Their size varied from lizard-sized to dog-sized creatures. Varanopids already showed some advanced...

. Cladistic analysis performed by Nicolás E. Campione and Robert R. Reisz

Robert R. Reisz

Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian paleontologist and specialist in the study of early amniote and tetrapod evolution.Robert Reisz was born August 27, 1947, in Oradea, Romania. He received his B.Sc. , M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McGill University as Robert L. Carroll’s first doctoral graduate...

 in 2010 suggests that Varanops is a derived varanodontine, sister taxon to the clade formed by Varanodon

Varanodon

Varanodon was a pelycosaur of the family Varanopidae.- References :* E. C. Olson. 1965. New Permian vertebrates from the Chickasha Formation in Oklahoma. Circular Oklahoma Geological Survey 70:1-70....

 and Watongia

Watongia

Watongia is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid from Middle Permian of Oklahoma. Only one species is descript, Watongia meieri, from Chickasha Formation. Its was assigned to family Gorgonopsidae by Olson and to Eotitanosuchia by Carroll. Reisz and collaborators assigned the genus in...

.