Aiolosaurus oriens

Conrad, J. L., 2008, Phylogeny And Systematics Of Squamata (Reptilia) Based On Morphology, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2008 (310), pp. 1-182 : 123

Aiolosaurus oriens + Cherminotus longifrons

(figs. 54E, 55E, 56D)

DIAGNOSIS: This unnamed lanthanotine clade is diagnosed by 12(2) mediolateral breadth of the premaxillary nasal process less than the dorsoventral depth and 43(0) presence of a single lacrimal foramen (a reversal).

COMMENTS: The current analysis is the first to cladistically test the position of Lanthonotus borneensis with respect to fossil taxa such as Aiolosaurus oriens and Cherminotus longifrons . Cherminotus longifrons was originally considered to be a close relative of L. borneensis (Borsuk-Białynicka, 1984; Gao and Norell, 1998), but the specific position for A. oriens within Varanidae was not hypothesized in its original description ( Gao and Norell, 2000). Gao and Norell (2000) showed that C. longifrons does not possess some of the character states that were used to join it with L. borneensis in the studies of Borsuk-Białynicka (1984) and Gao and Norell (1998). Despite this, the current analysis suggests that both C. longifrons and A. oriens are lanthanotines.