| Pristerodon Temporal range: Late Permian | |
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| Skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Anomodontia |
| Clade: | †Dicynodontia |
| Family: | †Eumantellidae |
| Genus: | †Pristerodon Huxley, 1868 |
| Type species | |
| †Pristerodon mackayi Huxley, 1868 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Pristerodon is an extinct genusofdicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian of South Africa, Zambia and India.
Pristerodon were among the earliest land animals able to hear airborne sound as opposed to hearing via ground vibrations. A South African specimen studied with neutron tomography[1] has shown evidence of an eardrum on its lower jaw with the implication that it was hearing impaired during the act of chewing. The specimen had a 3mm cavity for cochlea which transformed sound frequency ranges into nerve impulses sent on to the brain.
Pristerodon has been found in the Kundaram Formation of India, Usili FormationofTanzania, the Upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of Zambia, and the Teekloof Formation and Abrahamskraal Formation of South Africa.
Pristerodon in a cladogram modified from Angielczyk and Rubidge (2010) showing the phylogenetic relationships of Dicynodontia:[2]
| Dicynodontia |
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| Pristerodon |
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