|
''Hyaenodon'' ("hyena-toothed") is the type genus of Hyaenodontidae, a group of extinct carnivorous fossil mammals from Eurasia, North America and Africa, with species existing temporally from the Eocene until the middle Miocene, existing for approximately .〔(PaleoBiology Database: ''Hyaenodon'', basic info )〕 The various species of ''Hyaenodon'' competed with each other and with other hyaenodont genera (including ''Sinopa'', ''Dissopsalis'' and ''Hyainailouros''), and played important roles as predators in ecological communities as late as the Miocene in Africa and Asia.〔Wang, Xiaoming; and Tedford, Richard H. Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.p17〕 Species of ''Hyaenodon'' have been shown to have successfully preyed on other large carnivores of their time, including a "false saber-tooth cat", ''Dinictis'' by analysis of tooth puncture marks on a fossil ''Dinictis'' skull in North Dakota .〔Hoganson, John W; and Person, Jeff. "Tooth puncture marks on a 30 million year old Dinictis skull. Geo News. July 2011. p12-17" ()〕 ==Description== Some species of this genus were among the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammals of their time; others were only of the size of a marten. ''Hyaenodon'' is one of the longest lived genera of Hyaenodontidae, and is known from the Late Eocene to Early Miocene. Remains of many species are known from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa (In 1993 42 species were distinguished).〔Wang, Xiaoming, Qiu, Zhanxiang, and Wang, Banyue, 2005. Hyaenodonts and Carnivorans from the Early Oligocene to Early Miocene of Xianshuihe Formation, Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China, Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 8, Issue 1; 6A: 14p, (online )〕 Typical of early carnivorous mammals, individuals of ''Hyaenodon'' had a very massive skull but only a small brain. The skull is long with a narrow snout - much larger in relation to the length of the skull than in canine carnivores, for instance. The neck was shorter than the skull, while the body was long and robust and terminated in a long tail. The average weight of adult or subadult ''H. horridus'', the largest North American species, is estimated to about and may not have exceeded . ''H. gigas'', the largest ''Hyaenodon'' species was much larger, being and around .〔WANG X. & TEDFORD R. H. 2008. — Dogs, their fossil relatives and evolutionary history. Columbia University Press: 1-219.〕 ''H. crucians'' from the early Oligocene of North America is estimated to only . ''H. microdon'' and ''H. mustelinus'' from the late Eocene of North America were even smaller and weighed probably about .〔Naoko Egi (2001) Body Mass Estimates in Extinct Mammals from Limb Bone Dimensions: the Case of North American Hyaenodontids _Palaeontology 44 (3) , 497–528 〕 Compared to the generally larger (but closely related) ''Hyainailouros'', the dentition of ''Hyaenodon'' was geared more towards shearing meat and less towards bone-crushing.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hyaenodon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|