... assignment to the Varanodontinae (Varanopidae: Synapsida) is supported by several diagnostic features, including a strongly recurved marginal dentition with both posterior and anterior, unserrated, cutting edges, quadratojugal with two discrete superficial rami, a large lateral tuberosity on the postorbital...

... characters, a rescaled consistency index of 0.59, and a retention index of 0.83. A polytomy exists consisting of Mycterosaurus , Mesenosaurus , BP/1/5678 and Varanodontinae. Elliotsmithia is a basal varanodontine. The results indicate that Archaeovenator is a sister taxon to all other varanopids...

... is Elliotsmithia longiceps from the Upper Permian Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of South Africa ( Reisz et al., 1998 ). Elliotsmithia was identified by these authors as a varanopid (=“varanopseid”) and basal member of a clade including Aerosaurus , Varanops and Varanodon (“Varanodontinae” of Reisz...