Varanops
Name: Varanops
(Varan face).
Phonetic: Va-ran-nops.
Named By: Samuel Wendell Williston - 1914.
Classification: Chordata, Synapsida,
Pelycosauria, Varanopidae.
Species: V. brevirostris (type).
Type: Carnivore.
Size: About 1 to 1.2 metes long.
Known locations: USA, Oklahoma - Garber Formation,
Texas - Arroyo Formation.
Time period: Capitanian of the Permian.
Fossil representation: Several specimens, often of
juveniles.
As
a late surviving member of the group, Varanops is
often cited as one
of the last of the pelycosaurs.
With its relatively long legs,
Varanops may have been more suited to open ground,
as opposed to
dense undergrowth where they may have been of a hindrance. They may
have also provided for sudden bursts from an ambush point if Varanops
employed ambush tactics as a hunting strategy.
The
skulls are often damaged in the fossilisation process, due to their
light build for their size, but have revealed a fenestra in the lower
jaw that is positioned below the temporal fenestra of the skull. This
could be to save skull weight of allow for more specialised muscle
attachment. The teeth are curved and laterally compressed for
slicing. The teeth towards the middle of the upper jaw are also
enlarged, possibly suggesting prey that was agile, and requiring
numerous smaller teeth at the front to grip, yet of a size requiring
larger teeth to deal with. These prey items may have been some of the
diapsid reptiles like Araeoscelis
and maybe even terrestrial amphibians
like Cacops.
Varanops
did not survive to see the Permian extinction, and is thought to
have succumbed to competition from both the diapsids and therapsids
that were becoming more common, and more capable predators.
Further reading
- American Permian vertebrates. - University of Chicago Press, Chicago:
130 pp. - Samuel W. Williston - 1911.
- The osteology of some American Permian vertebrates. - Contributions
of the Walker Museum 1: 107–162. - Samuel W. Williston - 1914.
- An articulated skeleton of Varanops with bite
marks: the oldest known
evidence of scavenging among terrestrial vertebrates. - Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology 26 (4): 1021–1023. - Robert R. Reisz and Linda
A. Tsuji - 2006.
- Varanops brevirostris (Eupelycosauria:
Varanopidae) from the Lower
Permian of Texas, with discussion of varanopid morphology and
interrelationships. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (3):
724–746. - Nicol�s E. Campione & Robert R. Reisz - 2010.
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