Palaeonictis

Palaeonictis Temporal range: Late Paleocene–Early Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Palaeonictis occidentalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Creodonta
Family:	Oxyaenidae
Genus:	Palaeonictis De Blainville, 1842

Palaeonictis is an extinct hyena-like creodont predator belonging to the family Oxyaenidae, existing from the late Paleocene to the early Eocene times.^[1]

Description

Tooth of Phenacodus and Palaeonictis

In life, it would have resembled a large modern wolverine. This oxyaenid had heavy jaws and blunt robust teeth more suited for crushing bones, than slicing meat. This meant that the plantigrade Palaeonictis was at least a part time scavenger. The biggest species, Palaeonictis peloria (meaning "terrible ancient weasel") is known from an incomplete jaw that must have measured over 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length. This animal was the largest carnivore in its ecosystem. 55 million years ago, P. occidentalis (the size of a bear) evolved into the smaller P. wingi (the size of a coyote) within 200,000 years in the early Eocene due to global warming (paleoclimatology). By the end of the middle Eocene (38 million years ago), Palaeonictis disappeared from North America, and by the late Eocene (34 million years ago) the last species of P. gigantea had vanished from Europe.^[2] In fact, the entire Oxyaenidae family had become extinct world wide (although its sister group Hyaenodontidae continued to thrive for a while). This was due to increased competition from miacids and nimravids belonging to the more successful Order Carnivora, which eventually replaced Creodonta in the later Neogene as the worlds top predators.

References