Aelurodon
Name: Aelurodon.
Phonetic: Ay-lur-o-don.
Named By: Joseph Leidy - 1858.
Synonyms: Prohyaena, Strobodon.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora,
Canidae, Borophaginae.
Species: A. ferox (type), A.
asthenostylus, A. mcgrewi, A. montanensis, A. stirtoni,
A. taxoides.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Between 30 and 56 kilograms in
weight and about 70 centimetres high at the shoulder, depending upon
the species.
Known locations: Across North America, especially
the United States.
Time period: Langhian through to the Messinian of
the Miocene. Possibly into the early Zanclean of the Pliocene.
Fossil representation: Well over a hundred
individuals of differing species.
Along
with the type genus Borophagus,
Aelurodon is one of the better known
of the so called ‘bone crushing dogs’ of the Borophaginae. Canids
like Aelurodon got their nickname from the form of
their short snouts
which have also been described as hyena-like. Because of their
shortness, the snout force food towards the back of the mouth nearer
to where the jaw articulates. This allows for a greater amount of
force to be focused upon whatever was in the mouth so that when say a
bone was inside, Aelurodon had the bite force
necessary to break it
open. This would allow Aelurodon to then consume
the bone marrow
within, which could also imply that Aelurodon had
a greater tendency
to scavenge carcasses where only the bones might be left after all the
meat had already been consumed by carnivores that did not have the
power in their jaws to crack open the bones as well.
Aelurodon
was also one of the last borophagines (as a group the Borophaginae
disappeared at the end of the Pliocene), and seems to have gone
extinct with the gradual appearance of more modern predators. These
predators included felids, particularly sabre toothed cats like
Machairodus,
the earliest wolves such as Canis
lepophagus and Canis
ferox and the gradual appearance of bears such as
Indarctos.
These
new forms were all better adapted at hunting the new and changing forms
of available prey with some also capable of crunching bones as well and
in the face of all of this new competition, older carnivore forms
like Aelurodon were steadily eked out of existence.
Further reading
- Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae, X. Wang, R.
H. Tedford & B. E. Taylor - 1999.
- A new species of Aelurodon (Carnivora, Canidae) from the
Barstovian of Montana, Wang, Xiaoming; Benjamin Wideman, Ralph
Nichols, Debra Hanneman - 2004.
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