Mesonychidae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mesonychids
Fossil range: Early Paleocene - Early Oligocene

Mesonyx

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Laurasiatheria
Order:	Mesonychia
Family:	Mesonychidae

Genera

Mesonyx (type genus)
Sinonyx
Jiangxia
Hessolestes
Yangtanglestes
Hukoutherium
Pachyaena
Harpagolestes
Ankalagon
Dissacus
Mongolonyx
Guilestes
Mongolestes
Synoplotherium (syn. "Dromocyon")

Mesonychidae ("Middle Claws") is an extinct family of medium to large-sized carnivorous mammals that were closely related to artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates). They first appeared in the Early Paleocene, undergoing numerous speciation events during the Paleocene, and Eocene. Mesonychidae faired very poorly at the close of the Eocene epoch, with only one genus, Mongolestes,^[1] survived into the Early Oligocene epoch. Mesonychids probably originated in Asia, where the most primitive mesonychid, Yangtanglestes, is known from the early Paleocene. They were also most diverse in Asia where they occur in all major Paleocene faunas. Since other carnivores such as the creodonts and condylarths were either rare or absent in these animal communities, mesonychids most likely dominated the large predator niche in the Paleocene of Asia. Throughout the Paleocene and Eocene, several genera, including Dissacus, Pachyaena and Mesonyx would radiate out from their ancestral home in Asia and into Europe and North America, where they would give rise to new mesonychid genera.

The term "mesonychid" is often used to refer to any of the various members of the order Mesonychia, though most experts prefer to use it to refer to the members of the family Mesonychidae, with many experts using the term "mesonychian" to refer to the order as a whole.