We met beardogs last week, which were in their own special category.

Now how about some real canids that both beardogs and cat-like nimravids had to deal with?

Meanwhile, in Africa…

It’s a creodont, and they are no longer around.

Given the size of this particular species, that’s good. But how much it and other hyaenodonts must have influenced the evolution of both halves of the order Carnivora!

One correction, though: They include a mesonychid image, painted by Charles Knight. You can see that same picture here — they must not have noticed that it had little hooves on its digits, not claws.

Seriously!

While trying to find out how far back carnivorans and therefore cats go, I learned that after the K/T extinction a number of mammal groups, including the hoofed ones, tried out for the meat-specialist niche (More info, with some jargon.)

The ungulates (hoofers) went with herbivory soon afterwards, but as we’ve just seen, carnivorans and hyaenodonts competed for a long time.

Featured image: Jeff Kubina via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0