Placerias (meaning 'broad body')[2] is an extinct genus of dicynodonts that lived during the Carnian to the Norian age of the Triassic Period (230–215 million years ago).

[5] Placerias had a powerful neck, strong legs, and barrel-shaped body with possible ecological and evolutionary parallels with the modern hippopotamus, spending much of its time during the wet season wallowing in the water and chewing at bankside vegetation.

[6] Placerias used its beak to slice through thick branches and roots with two short tusks that could be used for defence and for intra-specific display.

[7] Fossils of forty Placerias were found near St. Johns, southeast of the Petrified Forest in the Chinle Formation of Arizona.

This site has become known as the 'Placerias Quarry' and was discovered in 1930, by Charles Camp and Samuel Welles, of the University of California, Berkeley.