In Depth
Paradaphoenus acquired its name from its superficial similarity to another bear dog called Daphoenus. Depending upon the palaeontologist, Paradaphoenus has been assigned a more general position within the Amphicyonidae, as well as a more precise classification within the Daphoeninae, the group named after Daphoenus.
At almost two kilos Paradaphoenus was one of the smaller bear dogs and initially lived in North America at a time when the top predators were creodont mammals like Hyaenodon horridus. Continuing climatic changes in the Miocene as well as the arrival of truly large bear dogs like Amphicyon would signal the end of the creodonts as top predators. Throughout this time Paradaphoenus would have continued to be near the bottom of the food chain where it probably focused its attentions upon hunting smaller mammals as well as probably scavenging the leftovers of the kills of larger predators.
Further Reading
– On some of the characters of the Miocene fauna of Oregon. – Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 18(102):63-78. – E. D. Cope – 1878. – The ancestry of certain members of the Canidae, the Viverridae, and Procyonidae. – Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 12(6):109-138. – J. L. Wortman & W. D. Matthew – 1899. – Small Oligocene amphicyonids from North America (Paradaphoenus, Mammalia, Carnivora). – American Museum Novitates 3331:1-20. – R. M. Hunt Jr. – 2001.
