H is for Harpagolestes
So far, every fossil I’ve talked about has been a large, hoofed mammal. Well, something has to eat all those herbivores.
Thus enter Harpagolestes.
Harpagolestes was a bear-sized, hyena-like mesonychid carnivore. For a long time, scientists thought that mesonychid carnivores were the ancestors of modern whales due to similarities in the teeth. (New analyses put whales more closely related to hoofed mammals.)
