Estemmenosuchidae is an extinct family of large, very early herbivorous therapsids that flourished during the Guadalupian period.

The high and massive skull is equipped with a number of horns projecting both upwards and outwards, which were probably used for intra-specific display.

The incisors and canine teeth are large, but those at the side are reduced, with a serrated apex, and may have helped to break up plant material, although they were too small to be of much use.

Hopson and Barghusen in 1986, who provided the first cladistic study of the Therapsida, coined the term Tapinocephalia for herbivorous dinocephalians, as opposed to the "Anteosauria" for the carnivorous forms.

However Thomas Kemp (1982) and Gillian King (1988) argue instead that the Estemmenosuchidae are the most basal Dinocephalia, being more primitive than both the Anteosauria and the Tapinocephalia.