Bonacynodon

Bonacynodon
Temporal range: LadinianCarnian
Photo and drawing of an incomplete fossil skull seen from the right
Skull of the holotype
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: Cynodontia
Family: Probainognathidae
Genus: Bonacynodon
Martinelli et al., 2016
Species:
B. schultzi
Binomial name
Bonacynodon schultzi
Martinelli et al., 2016

Bonacynodon is an extinct genus of cynodonts that lived in what is now southern Brazil during the Triassic period (LadinianCarnian ages). The genus is monotypic, containing only the type species Bonacynodon schultzi. B. schultzi is known from two specimens, consisting of two partial skulls and some badly preserved parts of the postcranium. Both specimens were recovered from the Pinheiros-Chiniquá Sequence, part of the Santa Maria Supersequence of the Paraná Basin. This sequence preserves a faunal association known as the Dinodontosaurus Assemblage Zone, which contains numerous other species of cynodonts, dicynodonts and reptiles. Bonacynodon was a small, likely insectivorous cynodont, whose length has been estimated at around 30 centimetres (12 in). It can be distinguished from other cynodonts by its large, serrated (saw-like) canine teeth. Together with the genus Probainognathus of Argentina, it made up the family Probainognathidae, one of the earliest-diverging lineages of the clade Probainognathia. It was a fairly close relative of mammals, the only group of cynodonts alive today.