| Odontocyclops Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Skull in Iziko South African Museum | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | †Anomodontia |
| Clade: | †Dicynodontia |
| Clade: | †Cryptodontia |
| Genus: | †Odontocyclops Keyser and Cruickshank 1979 |
| Type species | |
| Odontocyclops whaitsi (Broom 1913)
| |
Odontocyclops (Greek: ondont “tooth” Greek: kyklops “round eye”, a kind of Greek mythological giant with one eye in the midline; "toothy cyclops")[1] is an extinct genus of Dicynodonts that lived in the Late Permian. Dicynodonts are believed to be the first major assemblage of terrestrial herbivores.[2] Fossils of Odontocyclops have been found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa and the Luangwa Valley of Zambia.[2] The phylogenetic classification of Odontocyclops has been long under debate, but most current research places them as their own genus of Dicynodonts and being very closely related to Rhachiocephalus and Oudenodon.[2]