Aulacephalodon ("furrow-head tooth") is an extinct genus of medium-sized dicynodonts, or non-mammalian synapsids, that lived during late Permian period.

The species Aulacephalodon bainii was named in honor of Andrew Geddes Bain (1797-1864), a Scottish geologist and road engineer who is credited with discovering the first dicynodont skull in South Africa.

[1] Fossilization tends to have preserved only skulls and complete or fragmented bones of Aulacephalodon bainii, requiring paleontologists to use the unique features of the cranium when identifying specimens believed to belong to the genus.

[3] Diagnostic features of Aulacephalodon include (1) the size of their nasal bosses, (2) the shape and articulation of cranial bones, and (3) the length-breadth ration of the skull.

[4] The tracks had a width of 800 mm, which when combined with the short stride length suggests Aulacephalodon, or Rhachiocephalus, was an inefficient walker.

[4] An additional set of trackways was found at the Asante Sana game preserve near Petersburg in the Balfour Formation of the Beaufort Group.

While both species share some similar post-cranial features, there are numerous differences in the shapes of various girdle and forelimb elements prevents paleontologists from definitively recognizing A. peavoti as a member of Aulacephalodon.

[3] Based on the arid climate of the Cistecephalus Zone, Aulacephalodon is thought to have fed on the stems of woody plants present in the region.

[3] Specimens that were thought to represent mature males also had larger craniums with a thicker squamosal at the border of the zygomatic arch.

The terrain of the Cistecephalus zone is thought to be a lowland composed of vast floodplains, with many traversing streams that crossed the landscape.

[10] This more specific boundary is the result of a refined biozonation map and new technology that allows for more accurate geographic information data (GIS).

[10] Some paleontologists suggest that the end-Permian tetrapod extinctions, including Aulacephalodon, may have been caused by lowered atmospheric oxygen concentrations, resulting in both environmental and organismal hypoxia.

The increase in size of the internal nares and secondary palate would decrease the respiratory efficiency of large anomodont therapsids, such as Aulacephalodon.