Talk:Varanopidae

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Untitled[edit]

Really… this is how not to do it. Every sentence either contains errors or is uninteresting. If nobody else beats me to it, I'll fix this one day… But there's one thing that can be done immediately: Read the description of Archaeovenator. Google finds it several times, I bet one of them is free-access. It contains most of the explanation of why "Varanopseidae" is incorrect and Varanopidae is correct (the beast is called Varanops, not "Varanopsis"). David Marjanović (talk) 11:07, 20 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Varanopidae were a "disaster taxon", having survived Olson's Extinction c.270Ma. Ipso facto, the Varanopidae probably eked out survival, in marginal niches; indeed, their fossils locate to South Africa, then a near-arctic climate.66.235.38.214 (talk) 12:05, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

From the Synapsida article, no Synapsid / Theropsid "mammal-like lizards" are known, beyond Euramerica, until the middle Permian period c.270Ma. Afterwards, Therapsid "mammal-like reptiles" dominated, possibly because of their newly-evolved warm blood. Perhaps some Varanopidae, acting like scavenging Monitor lizards, "followed the scraps" left by globally expanding populations of Theropsids? 66.235.38.214 (talk) 13:58, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The page states that varanopids were up to "dog-sized". That is too vague, especially what we did to dogs; they range more than ten-fold in body mass. The largest varanopid was probably about 2 m long, something that has been known since 2004, in this paper: Reisz RR, Laurin M. 2004. A reevaluation of the enigmatic Permian synapsid Watongia and of its stratigraphic significance. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 377-386. How about giving a more accurate size descripiton? I won't do it myself because I am co-author of that paper and some editors here very, very susceptible with what they consider COI editing. Michel Laurin (talk) 19:26, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Varanopid classification[edit]

With various studies in recent years having recovered Varanopids as being diapsids, should the taxoboxes be changed to reflect this? Monsieur X (talk) 16:54, 7 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Returning to this, most recent studies as far as I can see still find varanopids to be synapsids. Should the taxobox be changed to reflect this? Hemiauchenia (talk) 03:49, 27 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]