PRIMITIVE FLESH EATERS 
water; and they equaled in size and doubtless in ferocity the 
biggest modern cats and wolves. Along with these strictly 
predacious creodonts were some that mimicked the bears, and 
others (Mesonychide) whose massive teeth were adapted to 
bone crushing and carrion chewing, so that their habits were 
probably those of hyenas. Some of these last equaled, or 
exceeded in size, the largest modern beasts of prey, and one of 
them is represented in the accompanying illustration. 
Contemporary with the Mesonyx was a more strictly live- 
flesh-eating creodont named Patriofelis, which was nearly as 
big as a lion, and remarkable for its extremely massive pro- 
portions and broad splay feet. The short jaw and catlike teeth 
of this animal — and of its smaller predecessor, Oxyena, of 
the Lower Eocene — caused the fragmentary fossil remains 
first examined to be mistaken for the bones of ancestors of the 
cats; but fuller knowledge has shown that this was an error. 
The hyznodons, whose skeletons are obtained from the 
Oligocene formations of Europe and America, represent the 
last surviving branch of the Creodonta, and they presently 
gave place to the more intelligent and better adapted true 
Carnivora (descended from the Miacide), which arose side by 
side with them and won in the competition for food and success. 
UPPER AND LOWER TEETH OF A CREODONT (HYNODON). 
Shows the carnassial teeth (second upper and third lower molar). 
G 81 
