Creodonta

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An extinct order of carnivorous mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs, characterized by diverse forms and often considered ancestral or related to modern carnivores
2. A group of prehistoric flesh-eating mammals that thrived in ancient ecosystems, exhibiting a variety of sizes and dental adaptations before becoming extinct
3. Members of a now vanished lineage of predatory mammals known for their specialized teeth and ecological roles prior to the rise of contemporary carnivorous species

Etymology: Creodonta is a taxonomic name, not a word that developed through ordinary speech, and it was coined in the 19th century from Greek roots. Its building blocks are "kreas," meaning flesh, and "odous," meaning tooth, combined with the Latin-style plural ending "-a." The name was introduced by the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in the 1870s, when he was describing fossil mammals from the Paleocene and Eocene epochs and needed a label for the group whose teeth were built for slicing meat. The name is a fitting description of what those animals were. Their carnassial teeth, the sharp shearing molars that modern carnivores use to cut flesh, were among the features that set them apart. The group is now generally regarded as a grade of early carnivorous-like mammals rather than a single natural family, so the name survives mainly as a convenient label for an extinct assemblage.

Synonyms: creodonts