Melanothyris Romer, 1952 Protorothyris is an extinct genus of Early Permian protorothyridid known from Texas and West Virginia of the United States.

It was first named by Llewellyn Ivor Price in 1937 and the type species is Protorothyris archeri.

All specimens were collected in the Cottonwood Creek site, from the Archer City Formation, Texas, dating to the Asselian stage of the Cisuralian epoch, about 299–294.6 million years ago.

[2] In 1973, J. Clark and Robert L. Carroll recombined P. morani as a Protorothyris species.

It was collected in the Blacksville site, from the Washington Formation (Asselian stage) of West Virginia.