Prototherium

{{Short description|Extinct genus of mammals}}

{{Taxobox

| image = Prototherium veronense 1221.JPG

| image_width = 250px

| image_caption = Mounted P. veronense skeleton

| regnum = Animalia

| phylum = Chordata

| classis = Mammalia

| ordo = Sirenia

| familia = Dugongidae

| genus = Prototherium

| genus_authority = de Zigno, 1887

| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Middle Eocene|Late Eocene}}

| subfamilia = †Halitheriinae

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = * Prototherium veronense (de Zigno, 1887) (type)

• Prototherium ausetanum Balaguer & Alba, 2016
• Prototherium intermedium Bizzotto, 1983

}}

Prototherium is a genus of extinct sirenian related to the dugong. It is known from middle (Bartonian) and upper Eocene deposits in Italy and Spain. Type species is P. veronenses (Zigno, 1887{{Cite journal|last=(de) Zigno|first=Achille|title=Quelques observations sur les siréniens fossiles.|journal=Bull.Soc. Geol. France|volume=15|pages=728–732}})

File:Halitherium veronense.JPG

Three species are now included in the genus, but their phylogenetic relations are not resolved and possibly one of them Prototherium intermedium Bizzotto 1983{{Cite journal|last=Bizzotto|first=Bruno|title=Prototherium intermedium n. sp. (Sirenia) dell'EoceneSuperiore di Possagno e proposta di revisione sistematica del taxon Eotheroides Palmer, 1899.|journal=Mem. Ist. Geol. Mineral. Univ. Padova|volume=36|pages=95–116}} must be excluded. In the same way, relations between Prototherium and other genus are confused and need revision. A third species was described in Spain in 2016, P.ausetanum{{Cite journal|author=Balaguer, J.|author2=Alba, D.|name-list-style=amp|title=A new dugong species (Sirenia, Dugongidae) from the Eocene of Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula)|journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol|date=2016 |volume=15|issue=5 |pages=489–500|doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2015.10.002|doi-access=free|bibcode=2016CRPal..15..489B }}.