| Oxyaenidae Temporal range: late Paleocene to early Eocene 60.2–33.9 Ma |
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| Part of a Palaeonictis occidentalis skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Creodonta |
| Family: | †Oxyaenidae Cope, 1877 |
| Subfamilies | |
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†Ambloctoninae |
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Oxyaenidae is a family of the extinct order Creodonta; it contains three subfamilies comprising ten genera. The placement of a fourth subfamily, Machaeroidinae, is unsure; it may belong here or in Hyaenodontidae.
North American oxyaenids were the first creodonts to appear during the late Paleocene, while smaller radiations of oxyaenids in Europe and Asia occurred during the Eocene.[1] They were cat-like beasts which walked on flat feet, in contrast to today's carnivores which (except for bears and raccoons) walk or run on their toes. Anatomically, characteristic features are a short, broad skull, deep jaws, and teeth designed for crushing rather than shearing, as in the hyaenodonts.(Lambert, 163)
Oxyaenids were specialized carnivores feeding on birds, small mammals, eggs and insects, and they were capable of climbing trees, which is suggested by fossil evidence of their paws.