Creodonta

Live reconstruction of Hyaenodon ( painting by Heinrich Harder, dating back to 1920)

• North America
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa

Urraubtiere, apparent predators or Creodonten ( Creodonta ) are an extinct group of carnivorous mammals. They were described in 1877 by Edward Drinker Cope. Nowadays there are 45 Creodontengattungen. They were the dominant prey mammals in the early Tertiary. Although they resembled today's dogs, cats, bears, hyenas, mongooses, or, they are not closely related to today's carnivores ( Carnivora ). There are two families of Creodonten, the dog or hyena -like Hyaenodontidae, whose most famous representative was Hyaenodon and the more cat-like Oxyaenidae.

Creodonten lived in Europe, Asia, North America, with the Hyaenodontiden they came before in Africa. In Eurasia and North America all Creodonten died out at the end of the Oligocene, only in Africa, some species were able to keep to the Miocene. However, it succeeded in the genus Hyaenailouros in the Miocene of Africa to colonize Eurasia and yet again delay the extinction of Creodonten also something here. In the late Miocene, however, all Creodonten had disappeared in the old world.

Features

Creodonten had the crushing scissors far back in the mouth ( between the second and third upper molars and the third and fourth bottom molars ), while the Carnivora the crushing scissors earlier (fourth premolar in the upper jaw; first molar in the lower jaw ) have. The carnivores had therefore better placed to chew their food, and could also use vegetable food besides meat. Presumably they therefore developed diverse, and eventually supplanted the Creodonten.

System

In the following list the two major taxa of Urraubtiere are listed with some exemplary genera:

Oxyaenidae:

• Deltatheridium
• Dipsalidictis
• Dipsalodon
• Oxyaena
• Palaeonictis
• Paroxyaena
• Patriofelis
• Sarkastodon
• Tytthaena

Hyaenodontidae:

• Cynohyaenodon
• Dissopsalis
• Hyaenodon
• Leakitherium
• Lesmesodon
• Limnocyon
• Machaeroides
• Megistotherium
• Prolimnocyon
• Proviverra
• Pterodon
• Sinop ( t) a
• Synoplotherium
• Tritemnodon