[4] In 1993, paleontologists Hans-Dieter Sues and Paul E. Olsen classified Variodens, along with Tricuspisaurus and Trilophosaurus jacobsi, as a procolophonid.

[5] This reassignment was based on the close similarity between the tricuspid teeth of these trilophosaurs and those of the newly named procolophonid Xenodiphyodon.

Sues and Olsen also proposed a new generic name for T. jacobsi, Chinleogomphius, given that it was no longer considered to be related to Trilophosaurus.

The similarities between the teeth of Variodens and those of procolophonids may be convergent adaptations to a herbivorous diet, and do not necessarily indicate a close relationship.

[6] Whiteside & Duffin (2017) agreed with Robinson's original interpretation of V. inopinatus as a trilophosaur, noting that tooth implantation of the specimen (fragment of a left dentary) described by the authors is ankylothecodont, as described for Trilophosaurus by Heckert et al.