Dicynodon is a genus of dicynodont therapsid that lived in southern and eastern Africa during the Late Permian epoch. It is the namesake for the Dicynodontia, being the first genus named and recognised from the group by palaeontologist Richard Owen in 1845, and embodies many of their typical characteristics. It was a herbivore, with a tortoise-like beak and was almost entirely toothless, except for the pair of prominent canine tusks that gave it its name.