CRE'ODON'TA (Neo-Lat., nom. pl. of Gk. K piac , krcas, flesh + odors, odous, tooth). A suborder of extinct mammals, ancestral to the true carnivores, and hence sometimes called Car nivora Primigenia, and found fossil in the lower Tertiary rocks. The ereodonts comprise primi tive or synthetic types of animals that vary in size from that of a weasel to that of a grizzly bear, and that combine the characters of the trite carnivorous families in such manner as to render determination of the taxonomic rank of any particular species a matter of some difficulty. The members of the suborder present resem blances to the bears. civets, and dogs among the true carnivores; the genus Patriofelis seems prophetic of the Pinnipedia, or seals, and Me sonyx resembles the carnivorous marsupials of Australia. The more primitive forms show char acters possessed also by the [nseetivora, Tillodon tia, and Condylarthra. The oldest known mant illa] skull—that of Triisodon from the lower Puereo beds of the lowest Eocene of New Alexieo —is placed among the Creodonta. Creodont re mains are found in the lower Tertiary of Pata gonia. and these are of interest because they re
semble the carnivorous marsupials of Australia and New Zealand much more closely than do the North American ereodonts. The range of the snborder in both North America and Europe is from the base of the Eocene into the lower Miocene. During Eocene time the ereodonts played that important role among land animals which subsequently, during later Eocene and Miocene time, was assumed by the true carni vores. Among the more interesting and impor tant genera are Aretoeyon, Hytenodon, Mesonyx, Patriofelis. Stylolophus.
BlimmonAmtv. Matthew, "A Revision of the Puerco Bulletin. of the ...lmerican Mu seum of :Natural History, vol. ix. (New York, 1897) ; a. "Additional Observations on the Creodonta," Bulletin of the American Museum, of Natural History, vol. xiv. (New York, 1901) ; Scott, "A Revision of the North American Creo donta," Journal of the Academy of Natural ...Icienees of Philadelphia, vol. ix. (Philadelphia, 1S87). See articles on STEsoNrx; OXY.ENA ; HY.E.NODON ; PATRIOPELIS ; AIAMMALIA ; TRURO DON.