Machaeroides
| Machaeroides Temporal range: Eocene | |
|---|---|
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| Machaeroides eothen skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Creodonta |
| Family: | Incertae sedis |
| Subfamily: | Machaeroidinae |
| Genus: | Machaeroides |
| Species | |
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Machaeroides ("dagger-like") is a genus of sabre-toothed creodont that lived during the Eocene (56 to 34 mya). Its fossils were found in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the earliest known sabre-toothed mammal.
Description
Either species bore a passing, or superficial resemblance to a very small, dog-sized saber-toothed cat. Machaeroides could be distinguished from actual saber-toothed cats by their more-elongated skulls, and their plantigrade stance. Machaeroides species are distinguished from the closely related Apataelurus by the fact that the former genus had smaller saber-teeth.
M. eothen weighed an estimated 10-14 kg, thus matching in size a smallish Staffordshire Terrier. M. simpsoni was smaller.(Egi 2001)
Taxonomic Placement
Although it is undeniably a creodont, its position within the order is in dispute. Experts seem equally divided over whether Machaeroides and its sister-genus, Apataelurus, belong in Oxyaenidae or Hyaenodontidae.[citation needed]
References
- Egi, Naoko1 (2001): Body Mass Estimates in Extinct Mammals from Limb Bone Dimensions: the Case of North American Hyaenodontids. Palaeontology 44(3): 497-528. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00189