creodont

American  

[kree-uh-dont] / ˈkri əˌdɒnt /

noun

1. any of a diverse group of extinct predatory mammals, from the Paleocene to Pleistocene epochs, that constituted the suborder Creodonta, of the order Carnivora, developing along evolutionary lines somewhat parallel to those of the ancestors of modern carnivores and typically having a stocky, doglike body and a long, low skull.

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creodont British  

/ ˈkriːəˌdɒnt /

noun

1. any of a group of extinct Tertiary mammals some of which are thought to have been the ancestors of modern carnivores: order Carnivora

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creodont Scientific  

/ krē′ə-dŏnt′ /

1. Any of various extinct carnivorous mammals of the order Creodonta of the Paleocene to the Pliocene Epochs. Creodonts had long, low skulls with crests to which chewing muscles were attached. They were the dominant carnivorous mammals for millions of years, and were once believed to be ancestral to modern carnivores.

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Etymology

Origin of creodont

< New Latin Creodonta (1875) name of the group, equivalent to cre- (< Greek kréas flesh) + -odont- -odont + -a neuter plural ending

Example Sentences

These tracks might have been made by a creodont, a predatory mammal about the size of a house cat, which flourished in the Paleocene and Eocene in Europe, Africa and North America.

From Seattle Times

Creodont fossils have long, narrow skulls similar in shape to a coyote’s, and carnassial molars, which cut through meat and bone like a pair of sharp scissors.

From Seattle Times

Take a seat in his bathroom and you found yourself facing the faintly smirking skull of Doris, a prehistoric creodont.

From Literature

Two tons of fossils have been despatched to America, including the skull of a creodont, the largest known primitive carnivorous animal, measuring 33x21 inches; teeth and jaws of coryphodon, lophidon and other large carnivorae; several skulls of the rhinoceros-like titanotheres; some complete skeletons of dinosaurs of the inguanodon type.

From Time Magazine Archive

Many of these present much more generalized characters than their modern representatives, while others indicate apparently a transition towards the still more primitive zeuglodonts, which, as will be shown later, are themselves derived from the creodont Carnivora.

From Project Gutenberg