The name Pelanomodon can be broken up into three parts; “pelos” meaning mud, “anomo” meaning irregular and “odon” meaning tooth. Together, this suggests Pelanomodon to be a mud dwelling anomodont (a group of theraspids that are characterized by their lack of teeth).[2] The Karoo Basin during this period was characterized by its extensive flood plains,[3] so to hypothesize a mud based habitat for this genus is not far fetched.