| Pterodon | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Pterodon_dasyuroides_skull_and_mandible.jpg)
| |
| Pterodon dasyuroides cranium and mandible, National Museum of Natural History, France | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Hyaenodonta |
| Family: | †Hyainailouridae |
| Subfamily: | †Hyainailourinae |
| Genus: | †Pterodon Blainville, 1839 |
| Type species | |
| †Pterodon dasyuroides Blainville, 1839
| |
| Species pending reassessment | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Synonyms of P. dasyuroides
| |
Pterodon (Ancient Greek: πτερόν (wing) + ὀδούς (tooth) meaning "wing tooth") is an extinct genus of hyaenodont in the family Hyainailouridae, containing five species. The type species Pterodon dasyuroides is known exclusively from the late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene of western Europe. The genus was first erected by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1839, who said that Georges Cuvier presented one of its fossils to a conference in 1828 but died before he could make a formal description of it. It was the second hyaenodont genus with taxonomic validity after Hyaenodon, but this resulted in taxonomic confusion over the validities of the two genera by other taxonomists. Although the taxonomic status of Pterodon was revised during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a wastebasket taxon for other hyaenodont species found in Africa and Asia. Today, only the type species is recognized as belonging to the genus while four others are pending reassessment to other genera.
P. dasyuroides had cranial and dental characteristics typical of the Hyainailouridae such as an elongated, narrow, and proportionally large skull which measures ~26 cm (10 in) in length and dentition for hypercarnivorous diets and bone-crushing similar to modern hyenas. Due to the scarcely known postcranial materials of the species, its overall anatomy is unknown, although it likely weighed 51.56 kg (113.7 lb) and may have been similar to another Eocene-aged European hyainailourine Kerberos.
The hyainailourine made its appearance in western Europe back when it was a semi-isolated archipelago, likely originating from a ghost lineage from Afro-Arabia. It was one of the larger-sized carnivores of the continent, a typical trait of hyainailourines. It coexisted largely with faunas that were adapted to tropical to subtropical environments and grew strong levels of endemism, becoming a regular component based on fossil evidence from multiple localities. Pterodon went extinct by the Grande Coupure extinction and faunal turnover event in the earliest Oligocene of Europe, which was caused by shifts towards seasonality plus glaciation as well as closing seaway barriers that allowed for large faunal dispersals from Asia. Its extinction causes are uncertain but may have been the result of rapid habitat turnover, competition with immigrant faunas, or some combination of the two.