Hyaenodontidae

Abstract: Our general understanding of hyaenodontid phylogeny and classification, particularly the division between the phylogenetically and morphologically primitive Proviverrinae and the derived Hyaenodontinae, has been fairly stable since Matthew laid down its framework in the early 20th century. However, a wealth of material described since that time allows Matthew's conclusions to be re-examined. Adding to that wealth is a new skeleton of Gazinocyon vulpeculus gen. et comb. nov. The postcranium of this specimen indicates that this animal was probably incipiently cursorial. The hindlimb morphology suggests that motion in the ankle was restricted to a parasagittal plane and that the animal was digitigrade. The forelimb is less completely preserved, making its functional ability more difficult to assess. Cladistic analysis suggests that Gazinocyon was related to a clade containing Eurotherium, Propterodon, Hyaenodon, and “Pterodon” hyaenoides. It also suggests that Hyaenodontinae (containing Pterodon, Hy...

Abstract: Analysis of a recently discovered partial skeleton of Prolimnocyon atavus, an early Eocene creodont (Hyaenodontidae, Limnocyoninae), from the Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, demonstrates that its postcranial skeletal anatomy was most similar to that of extant scansorial procyonid, viverrid, and mustelid Carnivora. Its anatomical traits (including reduced greater tuberosity, prominent and sharp deltopectoral crest, well-developed entepicondyle and brachial flange, ovoid radial head and gently concave, laterally oriented radial notch, moderately deep, laterally compressed ungual phalanges, medially projecting lesser trochanter, flattened talar trochlea with high lateral rim, helical proximal cuboid facet) are commonly associated with joint mobility and abducted limb posture which, in extant mammals, are characteristic of scansorial and ambulatory locomotion. These features resemble those of some early Eocene proviverrine hyaenodontids and, to a lesser extent, miacid Carnivora, but...

Abstract: The early Miocene deposits of the Rotem and Yeroham basins in the Negev district of Israel have yielded 19 taxa of fossil mammals, of which two are new species: Gazella negevensis (Bovidae) and cf. Anasinopa haasi (Creodonta, Hyaenodontidae). This is the only early Miocene record of vertebrates from the southern Levant, with many typically African taxa including: Prodeinotherium sp., cf. Canthumeryx syrtensis, Dorcatherium cf. D. pigotti, Dorcatherium cf. D. chappuisi, Megapedetes cf. M. pentadactylus, Kenyalagomys sp., Crocodylus cf. C. pigotti, and Lates sp. (Teleostei). Owing to a quasi-spatial isolation of Gebel Zelten (Libya), Gebel Moghara (Egypt), Rusinga, Songhor (and others in East Africa), Bugti Hills (Pakistan) and the Negev, for which a general contemporaneity is suggested, endemism in these sites is relatively high, reflecting their different environments rather than heterochroneity. Hence similarity between these remote and rapidly changing regions was mainly based on congeneric lev...