Some cladistic analyses recovered them as the closest relatives of snakes, taking into account similarities in jaw and skull anatomies; however, this has been disputed and the morphological analysis conducted by Conrad (2008) recovered them as varanoids closely related to terrestrial monitor lizards instead.
Algunhas análises cladísticas clasificáronos como os máis próximos parentes das serpes, tomando en conta as similitudes da anatomía da mandíbula e o cranio; porén, isto cuestionouse e as análises morfolóxicas conducidas por Conrad (2008) recuperáronos en cambio como varanoideos cercanamente relacionados cos varanos terrestres.