#Creodonta

[ivys-thick-juicy-thighs]

hiiiiii dropping by with asks <33

🦖🌿 and 5, 28, 32!

Hiiii tank 👋🏻 thanks for the questions!! I go full nerd with this so fair warning. I’m putting this under a cut cause it’s pretty long. Enjoy me nerding the fuck out lol

🦖- Favorite extinct animal?

I’m going to give you a whole species of animal because these things are so fucking cool. Thank you SO MUCH for asking this question you’ve made my autistic nerd brain VERY happy to be able to nerd out like this. Get ready for a whole ass encyclopedia entry of an answer.

Creodonta, a whole order of hyper-carnivores (meaning they would get the majority of their nutrients from meat) were large placental mammals that existed for over 50 million years, the last species dying out about 9 million years ago. My favourite genus in this order was Hyaenodon. The largest and smallest species would look something like this compared to someone of my height (5’11/~1.8 m.)

The fossil record for the biggest members is extremely limited as the soil that they are typically found in is too acidic for them to form properly, and the fossils don’t last long enough to be discovered before being destroyed. I get way too depressed about this if I think about it too long. Yes I’m that much of a nerd.

Here’s a bonus picture of some different members of this group

🌿- Describe your favorite outfit.

I don’t really have a favourite outfit right now, so instead I’ll describe my ideal outfit. I like to walk the line between intimidating as fuck and sexy as hell. And pants. It has to have pants (as opposed to a skirt or a dress). High heels to make me even taller, and the taller the better. Leather jacket, dark vampy (dare I say witchy) makeup, and a scary ass aura. That’s my ideal “outfit”.

5. what made you start your blog?

Well technically before I made this into a fan blog it kind of just a burner account. It was completely blank, and I basically just used tumblr as a resource for some niche information. Spiritual stuff, specifically. But then I saw this post (be sure to read the comments and thank me later) and couldn’t get the phrase “vessels two front teeth” out of my head and had to perform an act of catharsis and do something to get it out. That and I had the idea to do the portraits of the tokens, and together it just meant that I needed to get back to my fan blogging roots like when I was 18/19 and in the 5sos fandom.

28. do you collect anything?

Yes, I collect feathers, crystals/rocks, and tarot/oracle decks.

32. how many tabs do you have open right now?

I’m on my phone typing this, and at one point I had 5 apps open to get all the information for these answers. Mainly the first one.

[alphynix]

Time for some more recent commissions from PBS Eons!

The hyainailourids Megistotherium osteothastes and Hyainailouros napakensis, from "When Giant Hypercarnivores Prowled Africa" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK2nvNxAuk4

The bear-dogs Daphoenus demilo and Amphicyon giganteus, from "The Forgotten Story of the Beardogs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbmLqrnxH2w

The early panda Ailuropoda microta, from "The Fuzzy Origins of the Giant Panda" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DbShys9ww

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Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Pillowfort | Twitter | Patreon

[albertonykus]

Is creodonta a polyphyletic order ?

If you ask me, “orders” do not exist. ;)

Taxonomic preferences aside, a few studies have indeed found creodonts to be polyphyletic, but there hasn’t been much concerted research on this subject. It would be nice to see the possibility tested independently using different datasets and methods.

[wanderingmoonsword]

Hyaenodon

And so we emerge from the depths of Hell to the sunny reaches of… well, all over the world, really. As usual with these primeval monsters, I’m going to unpack the taxonomy a little before we get down to the adventure seeds. Hyaenodon was one of those genera that really got around, emerging in Africa to have a long, successful run as apex predators there, in Eurasia, and finally North America, living from 42 to 15.9 million years ago. Despite the name, Hyaenodon was not a particularly close relative of modern hyenas and certainly not ancestral to them, instead belonging to the order Creodonta, which may be a related order to the Carnivora that contains modern mammalian carnivores such as the cats, wolves, bears, and of course the hyenas. (The exact placement of Creodonta - or even if it really is a monophyletic order – is not a settled matter. Adventurers who can retrieve live specimens for examination and DNA testing should find the Smithsonian quite interested.) The largest Hyaenodon species, the aptly named H. gigas, was upwards of a ton on average, a ferociously large predator, but despite their large skulls, these early mammalian carnivores had small brains compared to modern predators, which may have been a factor in their replacement in various carnivorous niches by the ancestors of modern species. This taxonomic confusion isn’t limited to the Tome of Horrors, either – the same mistake turns up in the Pathfinder Bestiary.

The Tome of Horrors Complete also refers to these beasts as short-faced hyenas, something that points to the Pachycrocuta, a genus fairly closely related to living spotted hyenas whose largest species, P. brevirostris approached the size of modern lionesses. Still, if you’re inclined to concern yourself with the details of taxonomy, the giant short-faced hyena is a good stand-in for the hyaenodon name that’s approximately the right size for a dire hyena.

However you want to sort out the taxonomic details for your game (assuming you’re the kind of nerd like me who’s interested), these are stocky creatures with heavy skulls that are well-suited to cracking bones and ripping great hunks out of PCs foolish enough to get in their way. Those bites are ferocious. A pack of hyaenodons is going to be a threat to even mid-level parties because they don’t have to get all that lucky to do a lot of damage to parties that let themselves get flanked.

After bringing down a shovel-tusked amebelodon, a group of explorers in the primeval savannah wilderness of Thavapra’s largely unexplored second continent finds themselves confronted with a competitor for their kill. With their heavy builds and powerful jaws, the continent’s native hyena-like apex predators are frequent scavengers that have reached enormous sizes, able to bring down an elephant in an ambush. These massive brutes fear only the native lizardfolk, who have developed a habit of using spears and traps to control the mammalian predators. Against off-worlders, they have no fear at all, seeing them as just one more meal to scavenge.

Unusually intelligent for their kind, one pack of hyaenodons has developed the habit of spooking herds of prey into stampedes into dangerous terrain. Though they sometimes use water traps, trusting in crocodiles to create a situation the hyaenodons can exploit, their favorite is to drive herds right off the cliffs into a ravine where the pack can descend via a safer route… directly into the path of halfling trade caravans.

Disdaining the slave-taking ways of their kin, the gnolls of the Iron Pack are highly mobile ravagers who raid the settlements sprawled across the steppe for their survival. Mounted atop vicious hyaenodons, the Iron Pack sometimes sell the services of individual warbands as mercenaries but they’re always quick to turn to banditry and raiding if given half a chance, requiring a strong and vicious employer to keep them in line. Under the influence of their powerful battle shamans, the Iron Pack typically eat the corpses of the dead or feed them to their mounts.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 673

Although not precisely the same thing, dire hyenas are on page 129 of the Bestiary.

[wiccasaraus]

A concept sketch in the works for a personal project of mine. Not sure to finish this sketch or start a new based on this doodle. This superficial feline-like creature is actually one just one such speculative descendent of a group of archaic mammals called a Oxyaenids belonging to the superorder creodonta. Much of the world building elements of my project involve such speculative evolution concepts. Don't have a name for this little bigger at the moment, however; I do know much of its biology is comparable to a modern day Jaguar.

[researchspew]

DIFFERENCES IN THE TOOTH ERUPTION SEQUENCE IN HYAENODON ('CREODONTA': MAMMALIA) AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SYSTEMATICS OF THE GENUS

North American and European Hyaenodon taxa seem to have different tooth eruption sequences, in addition to other stated morphological distinctions.

I think this was the first paper to address this.  Thinking about juvenile dentitions always makes my head hurt, so I’m glad someone is working this out so I don’t have to.  I just have to be able to recognize it in specimens I find, which is hard enough.

[astronomy-to-zoology]

Genus: Patriofelis

...an extinct genus of large cat-like creodonts that lived in middle Eocene North America. Patriofelis was around the same size of a modern day jaguar (4-6 ft) and had short legs with broad feet, which suggests it was a poor runner and a good swimmer. Since Patriofelis was likely a swimmer it most likely led a similar lifestyle to otters and probably fed mostly on turtles which were abundant in some areas where it was found.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Creodonta-Oxyaenidae-Patriofelis

Images: Dmitry Bogdanov and Gally242

[crankydinosaur]

Patriofelis (father cat) was a Eocene creodont from North America about the size of panther.

Creodonts (family Creodonta) were predators from the Paleocene to Miocene. They share with true carnivores the carnassial shear but were not as effective movement wise (they could not slash or grab at prey) and possibly had smaller brains, so they were eventually overtaken by their carnivore cousins and became extinct.

(illustration by Charles R. Knight)

[h2en-gwei-blog]

Hyaenodon was a genus of credonts (and thus not related to hyenas, despite the name, who are carnivorans) that existed from 42-16 million years ago, lasting for a whopping 26 million years. As typical of credonts, they had enormous heads with extremely powerful jaws and a bite force that far exceeds any modern carnivorous mammal's to go with it. The genus was quite large, with 42 known species ranging in size from a small truck to a weasel, but most species were likely the apex predators in their respective environments for most of their history, with entelodonts (such as Archaeotherium) likely being the only real competitors they had. They lived all across the globe, save for South America, Australia, and Antarctica. Casts of their brain cavity show that they had a powerful sense of smell, and their nasal cavity extended much further into the back of the throat than in most animals, which gave them the ability to cram a lot more food into their mouth and likely allowed them to clean a carcass more quickly. Recently, comparisons have been drawn with modern animals of similar builds and it is believe they could have ran as fast as 35 miles an hour-- fast enough to catch one of their most beloved prey items, Mesohippus. Due to their low lying bodies, it is believed that Hyaenodonts were ambush predators, using the brush as their ally. As their environments got drier, and vegetation more scarce, the fossil record has actually been able to show us that they moved to the more verdant watering holes to hunt, waiting for animals to drink. The mass quantities of bones founds at such locations with Hyaenodont wounds show that this was a very prolific hunting strategy.

Despite all these apparent advantages, they had important disadvantages that proved to be their downfall with the arrival of carnivorans as competitors (notably Amphicyon). For one, they had significantly smaller brains incapable of forethought and cooperation, so carnivorans tendency to pack hunt put all creodonts at a deep disadvantage. Furthermore, their wrists didn't have the appropriate structure required for rotation-- the paws could only move forward and back. Carnivorans, however, are able to move their wrists and use them grab and manipulate prey, where as creodonts like Hyaenodon could only use their jaws (one reason for their massive size and bite force, a feature that would be unnecessary in carnivorans). This gave Hyaenodon significantly fewer hunting strategies, allowing Carnivora to dominate the niche. 

[eximago-blog]

Here, have a creodont.

Creodonta is an extinct order of mammals that were once considered ancestral to modern day Carnivora, but it's now believed that they share a common ancestor, perhaps of the order Cemolesta. They likely went extinct due to competition with Carnivora, who has a few key advantages over them. Particularly, carnivorans are able to twist their wrists, meaning they are able to grab and claw at prey, and hunt with their limbs. Creodonts were limited to hunting with their jaws, which is why they tend to have such large heads when compared to similarly sized carnivorans.

[astronomy-to-zoology]

Genus: Hyaenodon

....a extinct genus of hyaenodontid creodont (a extinct order of carnivorous mammal) that lived in Eurasia, Africa and North America from the Late Eocene to the Early Miocene. Members of Hyaenodon grew quite large and were some of the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammals of their time, with some species growing up to 10 feet long. However, this is not true for all species as some were only the size of a marten. The larger species were impressive predators and even have been known to prey on other predators like Dinictis. Hyaenodon was considered an 'apex predator' and had little competition, save for carnivorans which eventually out competed them. 

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Creodonta-Hyaenodontidae-Hyaenodon

Images: Revs1 and Daderot