Dukecynus is an extinct genus of meat-eating mammal, belonging to the order Sparassodonta (a clade included within Metatheria, a group that includes the mammals most related with marsupials), which lived in South America during the Miocene period average between about 13 and 12 million years ago.A single species known so far, Dukecynus magnus. The name of the genus meaning "Duke dog", for the Duke University and the Greek word cynos, dog, for the pretended similarity of this animal with dogs.