The genus was first erected by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1839, who said that Georges Cuvier presented one of its fossils to a conference in 1828 but died before he could make a formal description of it.

P. dasyuroides had cranial and dental characteristics typical of the Hyainailouridae such as an elongated, narrow, and proportionally large skull which measures ~26 cm (10 in) in length and dentition for hypercarnivorous diets and bone-crushing similar to modern hyenas.

Due to the scarcely known postcranial materials of the species, its overall anatomy is unknown, although it likely weighed 51.56 kg (113.7 lb) and may have been similar to another Eocene-aged European hyainailourine Kerberos.

It coexisted largely with faunas that were adapted to tropical to subtropical environments and grew strong levels of endemism, becoming a regular component based on fossil evidence from multiple localities.

In 1838, French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville made a review of palaeontological history and taxonomy as built upon from previous decades.

[1] Blainville also mentioned a fossil of an upper jaw that the late Georges Cuvier found and previously thought was close in affinity to the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) of New Holland (Australia).

Previously, Cuvier presented the fossil to the French Academy of Sciences in 1828 and thought that it was a large species of thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) but died before he could make a formal description of it.

In 1846, Auguste Pomel argued that he was unsure if Pterodon belonged to the didelph clade based on its dentition being apparently similar to thylacines but having different skull structures from them and other marsupials.

in The same year, Filhol also reported that an individual whose last name was Pradines recently discovered anterior portions of the skull of P. dasyuroides from the phosphate deposits of Limogne-en-Quercy.

[31][32] As a result of the synonymies, only one species assigned to Pterodon remains pending reassessment to another genus: P. hyaenoides, which is classified as belonging to the Hyaenodontinae and is located in Asia.

[27][33] The order Hyaenodonta (replacing the now-invalidated clade Creodonta) is known first from the middle Paleocene of Afro-Africa, expanding to both Europe and Asia from Afro-Arabia in multiple "out-of-Africa" dispersal events.

[35] The phylogenetic tree for the superfamily Hyainailouroidea within the order Hyaenodonta as created by Floréal Solé et al. in 2021 is outlined below:[40] Parvavorodon gheerbranti Glibzegdouia tabelbalaensis Indohyaenodon raoi Quasiapterodon minutus Apterodon macrognathus Apterodon gaudryi Apterodon langebadrae Akhnatenavus leptognathus Akhnatenavus nefertiticyon Hemipsalodon grandis Exiguodon pilgrimi Isohyaenodon zadoki Falcatodon schlosseri Hyainailouros bugtiensis Sivapterodon lahirii Isohyaenodon andrewsi Hyainailouros napakensis Hyainailouros sulzeri Arrisdrift hyainailourine Simbakubwa kutokaafrika Leakitherium hiwegi Megistotherium oseothlastes Megapterodon kaiseri Mlanyama sugu Sectisodon markgrafi Namasector soriae Prionogale breviceps Thereutherium thylacodes Pakakali rukwaensis Kerberos langebadrae Pterodon dasyuroides Paroxyaena spp.

The blunt brow ridges arise back from the upper edge of the orbits as triangular-shaped roughnesses and arrive at the sagittal plane area in front of the post-orbital constriction.

[4] While the zygomatic arches were not completely preserved in P. dasyuroides, those of the related Apterodon macrognathus and Kerberos langebadreae are dorsoventrally deep for robustness to support masseter muscles.

[4] Typical of mammals with elongated snouts, the lower edge of the mandible (specimen Qu8636, National Museum of Natural History, France) is slightly curved.

The back view of an artificial endocast as studied by Lange-Badré reveals that it has a triangular to ovate shape, with its olfactory bulbs as its top part and the cerebellar hemispheres.

[4] Therese Flink et al. in 2021 discussed how palaeontologists interpreted the endocast of P. dasyuroides, stating while Piveteau in 1935 and Lange-Badré in 1979 thought that the midbrain was exposed, Leonard Radinsky in 1977 suggested that instead, the neocortex's edge reached the cerebellum and olfactory bulbs.

After a reexamination of the natural endocast, Flink et al. were inclined to agree with the latter view and stated that if there truly was any midbrain exposure, it would not have been well-pronounced in comparison to the other hyaenodonts Thinocyon velox or Proviverra typica.

[6][45][4] According to Ginsburg, the ulna of Hyainailouros sulzeri is arched and has a high plus well-developed olecranon (bony prominence on the elbow) and a long and strong diaphysis up to the distal end of the bone.

The locomotion method made it differ from the more cursorial hyaenodontid Hyaenodon as well as hyaenids and borophagine canids, which all also displayed degrees of ossiphageous (bone-crushing) adaptations.

Multiple carnivorous mammal groups arose in Europe, Asia, Afro-Arabia, and North America, namely mesonychians, hyaenodonts, oxyaenids, and carnivoramorphs, dispersing between the continents.

[36] Several other prominent mammal orders arose within the continents by the early Eocene including the Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, and Primates, diversifying rapidly and developing dentitions specialized for folivory.

[53][54][55][56] The causes of the faunal turnover have been attributed to a shift from humid and highly tropical environments to drier and more temperate forests with open areas and more abrasive vegetation.

[36] In the environments, the body masses of hyaenodonts tended to increase over time, although the rate was slower to those in North America, meaning that they were still favorable enough they were able to achieve large sizes.

[60] P. dasyuroides first appears in the western European fossil record by MP18, with a significant ghost lineage of probably Afro-Arabian origins that makes its exact evolutionary history unknown.

[36] P. dasyuroides coexisted with a wide diversity of mammals, including endemic artiodactyls (Anoplotheriidae, Xiphodontidae, Choeropotamidae (recently determined to be polyphyletic, however), Cebochoeridae, Amphimerycidae, Mixtotheriidae, and Cainotheriidae),[61] non-endemic artiodactyls (Dichobunidae, Tapirulidae, and Anthracotheriidae),[5][62] perissodactyls (Palaeotheriidae),[52] leptictidans (Pseudorhyncocyonidae),[63] primates (Adapoidea and Omomyoidea),[64] eulipotyphlans (Nyctitheriidae),[65] chiropterans,[50] herpetotheriid marsupials,[66] and endemic rodents (Pseudosciuridae, Theridomyidae, and Gliridae).

[67] The alligatoroid Diplocynodon, present only in Europe since the upper Paleocene, coexisted with pre-Grande Coupure faunas as well, likely consuming insects, fish, frogs, and eggs due to prey partitioning previously with other crocodylomorphs that had since died out by the late Eocene.

[70] The MP19 locality of Escamps, for instance, indicates that P. dasyuroides coexisted with the herpetotheriids Peratherium and Amphiperatherium, pseudorhyncocyonid Pseudorhyncocyon, bats (Hipposideros, Vaylatsia, Vespertiliavus, Stehlinia), primates (Microchoerus, Palaeolemur), rodents (Blainvillimys, Theridomys, Plesiarctomys, Glamys), hyaenodont Hyaenodon, amphicyonid Cynodictis, palaeotheres Palaeotherium and Plagiolophus, dichobunid Dichobune, anoplotheriids Anoplotherium and Diplobune, cainothere Paroxacron and Oxacron, xiphodonts (Xiphodon, Dichodon, Haplomeryx), and amphimerycid Amphimeryx.

[78] The seaway dynamics separating western Europe from other landmasses to strong extents but allowing for some levels of dispersals prior to the Grande Coupure are complicated and contentious, but many palaeontologists agreed that glaciation and the resulting drops in sea level played major roles in the drying of the seaways previously acting as major barriers to eastern migrants from Balkanatolia and western Europe.

The Turgai Strait is often proposed as the main European seaway barrier prior to the Grande Coupure, but some researchers challenged this perception recently, arguing that it completely receded already 37 Ma, long before the Eocene-Oligocene transition.