The creodonts were an extinctorder of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene. They were previously considered ancestral to the carnivores, Carnivora, but are now considered to have shared a common ancestor. They were the dominant carniverous mammal from 55 to 35 MYA, sharing with the Carnivora the carnassial shear, scissor teeth that evolved to slice meat and gave both orders the tools to dominate the niche.
The creodonts ranged across North America, Eurasia and Africa, in forms that resemble those of modern carnivores. Amongst their number was Megistotherium, the largest mammalian land predator of all time, the size of a bison and with a skull tice as big as a tiger's. Their dominance over the early carnivores, known as miacids, began to wane after 35 MYA. The creodonts survived until 8 million years ago, the last form, Dissopsalis, lived in Pakistan.
References
The Velvet Claw, A Natural History of the Carnivores, David Macdonald, BBC Books, 1992
The creodonts were an extinct order of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene.
Some researchers argue that the creodonts themselves in fact represent a group of mammals of diverse biological ancestry in the mammal line that resemble one another via convergent evolution, rather than being the decendents of a common ancestor of all animals in the order.
Amongst their number was Megistotherium, which some argue was the largest mammalian land predator of all time, the size of a bison and with a skull twice as big as a tiger's.
Creodonts often have more than one pair of carnassials, which are always formed by the molars.
The sudden appearance of hyaenodontid creodonts at the beginning of the Eocene (together with several other groups of mammals) has been interpreted as an immigration from some part of the world with a poor fossil record for the Paleocene.
There have been speculations that the creodonts were inferior to the true carnivores in anatomy or intelligence, but their fossils supply no evidence for this.
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