Varanops

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Varanops
Fossil range: early Late Permian

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Synapsida
Order:	Pelycosauria
Family:	Varanopseidae
Subfamily:	Varanodontinae
Genus:	Varanops Wlliston, 1914

Species

Varanops brevirostris Willinston, 1911

Varanops was a pelycosaur of the family Varanopseidae. It lived in the Late Permian of North America. It is one of the surviving pelycosaurs of Late Permian, because many pelycosaurs died out by the end of the Early Permian, and another pelycosaurian extinction by the end of Middle Permian. But Varanops may have met its end because the gorgonopsids, and the therocephalians were the dominant carnivores during much of the Late Permian, and the diapsids were evolving into new, advanced forms. Varanops became extinct by the early Late Permian as with many other varanopseids.