Prodeinodon (meaning "before Deinodon") is a wastebasket taxon and a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian to Aptian stages) from the Xinlong Formation in the Napai Basin of China and from the Oosh Formation of Mongolia.[1] Two species have been formally identified (with a third informal species), all three known only from tooth fragments, showing no diagnostic features, making them difficult to classify, though they may belong to a carnosaur. At least some of the referred species may represent basal carcharodontosaurid theropods similar to Acrocanthosaurus.[2]
The type species, P. mongoliense, was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924.[3] A second species, P. kwangshiensis, was named in 1975.[4] "P. tibetensis" has not been formally described, and it may have belonged to its own, separate genus.[5]