The Rise of the Mammals 



and tliese animals have been called Creodonta, 

 flesh- toothed. They were mainly heavily built, 

 short-legged animals, something after the pat- 

 tern of a civet cat, but none of the Eocene 

 species attained the size of those of later date. 

 Neither do they possess the large cutting teeth 

 that were developed in subsequent species and 

 attained their maximum in the back part of the 

 jaws of true carnivores. This location of these 

 large teeth is a matter of mechanics ; for as 

 the jaw is a lever of the third order, with the 

 pull of the muscles in front of the su23port, 

 the farther back the teeth the greater is their 

 crushing power. There are a number of species 

 of these creodonts, but they are known mostly 

 from their teeth, and it would be a dry matter 

 to merely give a list of the scientific names by 

 which they are known. 



Coryphodon w^as one of the larger mammals 

 that appeared on the scene during the Wasatch 

 epoch — a clumsily built, stumpy-footed crea- 

 ture, adapted for an easy life in a mild climate. 

 In general appearance the coryphodons more 

 nearly resembled bears, plus a well-developed 



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