''Protheriodon'' is an extinct genus of probainognathian cynodonts which existed in the

Santa Maria Formation The Santa Maria Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is primarily Carnian in age (Late Triassic), and is notable for its fossils of cynodonts, "rauisuchian" pseudosuchians, and early dinosaurs and other ...

of the

Paraná Basin The Paraná Basin ( pt, Bacia do Paraná, es, Cuenca del Paraná) is a large cratonic sedimentary basin situated in the central-eastern part of South America. About 75% of its areal distribution occurs in Brazil, from Mato Grosso to Rio Grande d ...

in southeastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

during the middle

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

period. It contains the species ''Protheriodon estudianti''. It was first described by Argentine palaeontologist

José Bonaparte José Fernando Bonaparte (14 June 1928 – 18 February 2020) was an Argentine paleontologist who discovered a plethora of South American dinosaurs and mentored a new generation of Argentine paleontologists . One of the best-known Argentine paleo ...

, who assigned it to the family Brasilodontidae. More recent studies have however recovered it in a more basal position than other brasilodontids, just outside Prozostrodontia. Cladogram from Martinelli ''et al.'', 2017:

References

Prehistoric cynodont genera Ladinian genera Middle Triassic synapsids of South America Triassic Brazil Fossils of Brazil Santa Maria Formation Fossil taxa described in 2006 Taxa named by José Bonaparte Prehistoric probainognathians {{Paleo-therapsid-stub