Hyaenodon

From EvoWiki

Hyaenodon Fossil range: Late Eocene to Early Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Creodonta Family: Hyaenodontidae Genus: Hyaenodon Leidy, 1869
Species [1]
H. bavaricus H. brevirostris H. chunkhtensis H. crucians H. eminus H. exicuus H. gigas H. horridus H. incertus H. leptorhynchus H. megaloides H. microdon H. milloquensis H. mongoliensis H. montanus H. mustelinus H. pervagus H. raineyi H. venturae H. vetus H. weilini H. yuanchensis

See Hyaenodon in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hyaenodon ("hyaena-toothed") is an extinct genus of Hyaenodonts, a group of Creodonts. Some species of this genus were amongst the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammals.

These highly specialised predators appeared in the Late Eocene 41 million years ago existing through the Oligocene Epoch until the last species, H. weilini, died out during the early Miocene. Their long and narrow jaws were powerful and suitable for biting and crushing. Typical of early mammals, they had very massive skulls but only small brains.^{[citation needed]} It had a long skull with a narrow snout - much larger in relation to the length of the skull than in canine carnivores, for instance. Its neck was shorter than its skull, while its body was long and robust and terminated in a long tail. It had five toes on both its fore and hind feet, the first of which was shorter than the rest. ^{[citation needed]}

The structure of their skulls suggests that they had an acute sense of smell. Some species may have been specialized scavengers, but many were clearly active predators.^{[citation needed]} Hyaenodon resembled a Recent hyena in appearance, but its much sharper teeth and well developed sectorials (carnassials) show that it had a very different diet. Hyaenodon did not live on carrion, but hunted ungulates up to the size of a sheep. ^{[citation needed]}

Hyaenodon gigas, the largest Hyaenodon species (from the early Oligocene of China) was as much as 1.4 m high at the shoulder and 10 feet long. It weighed about 500 kg.^{[citation needed]} In other words, it was as large as an average modern horse.

In contrast, the smallest species were only 30 cm high at the shoulder.

Fossils of Hyaenodon species have been found in Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa.

Hyaenodon was a very successful and diverse genus, but eventually the modern carnivorous mammals of the order Carnivora were able to outcompete them. The genus was almost extinct by the end of the Paleogene.

References

• Haines, Tim & Chambers, Paul. (2006) The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. Canada: Firefly Books Ltd.

See also

• List of apex predators

This article includes material from the Wikipedia free encyclopedia, released under the GNU Free Documentation Licence (FDL). All contributions to this article are released under the GNU FDL.