Varanidae

Varanids; Temporal range: ; Late Cretaceous – Holocene,
	Male Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) fighting, Indonesia
	Fossil of Saniwa, an extinct varanid known from the Eocene of North America
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Superfamily:	Varanoidea
Family:	Varanidae; Merrem, 1820
Genera
	†Ovoo; †Telmasaurus; †Aiolosaurus; †Saniwides; †Paravaranus; †Proplatynotia; †Archaeovaranus; †Saniwa; Varanus;

The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea and order Anguimorpha. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards,^[1] includes the living genus Varanus and a number of extinct genera more closely related to Varanus than to the earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus).^[2] Varanus includes the Komodo dragon (the largest living lizard), crocodile monitor, savannah monitor, the goannas of Australia and Southeast Asia, and various other species with a similarly distinctive appearance. Their closest living relatives are the earless monitor lizard and Chinese crocodile lizard.^[3] The oldest members of the family are known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia.^[2]

^ Welton LJ, Siler CD, Bennett D, Diesmos A, Duya MR, Dugay R, et al. (October 2010). "A spectacular new Philippine monitor lizard reveals a hidden biogeographic boundary and a novel flagship species for conservation". Biology Letters. 6 (5): 654–658. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0119. PMC 2936141. PMID 20375042.
^ ^a ^b Dong L, Wang YQ, Zhao Q, Vasilyan D, Wang Y, Evans SE (March 2022). "A new stem-varanid lizard (Reptilia, Squamata) from the early Eocene of China". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 377 (1847): 20210041. doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0041. PMC 8819366. PMID 35125002.
^ Fry BG, Vidal N, Norman JA, Vonk FJ, Scheib H, Ramjan SF, et al. (February 2006). "Early evolution of the venom system in lizards and snakes". Nature. 439 (7076): 584–588. Bibcode:2006Natur.439..584F. doi:10.1038/nature04328. PMID 16292255. S2CID 4386245.

Varanids Temporal range: Late Cretaceous – Holocene,

Male Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) fighting, Indonesia

Fossil of Saniwa, an extinct varanid known from the Eocene of North America
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Superfamily:	Varanoidea
Family:	Varanidae Merrem, 1820
Genera
†Ovoo †Telmasaurus †Aiolosaurus †Saniwides †Paravaranus †Proplatynotia †Archaeovaranus †Saniwa Varanus