Youngina (named after John Young (1823–1900)) is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile from the Late Permian Beaufort Group (Tropidostoma-Dicynodon zones) of the Karoo Red Beds of South Africa.

[1] This, and a few related forms, make up the family Younginidae, within the order Eosuchia (proposed by Broom in 1914).

[10] Youngina shows a mosaic of features found in more primitive diapsids and more derived taxa such as archosauromorphs and lepidosauromorphs suggesting a non-orthogenetic evolution of these characters.

Though the palatobasal articulation is open,[10] it was probably immobile, similar to the skull of the tuatara,[11] contrary to some earlier claims made about the metakinetic mobility of basicranial joints in Youngina and other early diapsid reptiles.

[12] Youngina was once thought to be closely related to Acerosodontosaurus, and more distantly to tangasaurids (Kenyasaurus, Hovasaurus, Thadeosaurus, and Tangasaurus), but the monophyly of younginiforms has not been demonstrated in published analyses of diapsid reptiles, and it is likely this group is paraphyletic.