Bastetodon

Bastetodon (meaning "Bastet tooth") is an extinct genus of carnivorous hyaenodont mammals from the Early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt. The genus contains single species, B. syrtos, which was originally assigned to the genus Pterodon.^[1]

Bastetodon Temporal range: Early Oligocene (Rupelian), ~30 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Hyaenodonta
Family:	†Hyainailouridae
Subfamily:	†Hyainailourinae
Genus:	†Bastetodon Al-Ashqar et al., 2025
Species:	†B. syrtos
Binomial name
†Bastetodon syrtos (Holroyd, 1999)
Synonyms
Pterodon syrtos (Holroyd, 1999)

Discovery and naming

In 1999, paleontologist Patricia A. Holroyd described a partial right maxilla from 'Quarry M' of the Jebel Qatrani Formation near the Faiyum Oasis of Egypt as belonging to a new species of Pterodon, P. syrtos. The specific name, syrtos, is a Greek word meaning "carried along by a stream", referencing the preservation of the holotype in a point bar depositional environment.^[2]

In 2025, Al-Ashqar and colleagues revised the record of African species assigned to Pterodon, a historic wastebasket taxon. As in previous analyses, they observed that the species referred to this genus form a polyphyletic assemblage.^[3][4] Based on a more recently-collected complete skull from 'Quarry I', they established a new genus, Bastetodon, for "P." syrtos. The generic name combines a reference to Bastet—a cat-headed goddess from Ancient Egyptian mythology associated with protection, pleasure, and good health—with the Greek suffix "-odon", meaning "tooth". The authors' intended translation is "teeth like the cat-headed goddess".^[1]

Classification

Using an expanded matrix from previous phylogenetic analyses,^[5] Al-Ashqar et al. (2025) recovered "P." syrtos as the sister taxon to the smaller and roughly coeval Falcatodon within the hyaenodontan subfamily Hyainailourinae.^[6] Their results are displayed in the cladogram below:^[1]

Hyainailourinae

Orienspterodon dahkoensis Kerberos langebadreae Pterodon dasyuroides Hemipsalodon Akhnatenavus leptognathus Akhnatenavus nefertiticyon Sekhmetops africanus Sekhmetops phiomensis Paroxyaena sp. Thereutherium Sectisodon markgrafi Namasector soriae Prionogale breviceps Leakitherium hiwegi Mlanyama sugu Exiguodon pilgrimi Metapterodon kaiseri Ekweeconfractus amorui Isohyaenodon zadoki Bastetodon syrtos Falcatodon schlosseri Hyainailouros sulzeri Megistotherium Simbakubwa Hyainailouros napakensis Hyainailouros nyanzae Isohyaenodon andrewsi Hyainailouros bugtiensis Sivapterodon lahirii