noun
definition
A member of the extinct Creodonta order of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene epoch.
Examples of creodonts in a Sentence
At any rate, there seems little doubt that it was the region where creodonts and other primitive mammals were first differentiated from their reptilian ancestors.
As regards the number and form of their permanent teeth, at any rate, creodonts present such a marked similarity to carnivorous marsupials, that it is difficult to believe the two groups are not allied, although the nature of the relationship is not yet understood, and the minute internal structure of the teeth is unlike that of marsupials and similar to that of modern Carnivora.
There is the further possibility that creodonts may be directly descended from the carnivorous reptiles; a descent which if proved might introduce some difficulty with regard to the abovementioned theory as to the arboreal ancestry of mammals generally.
Be this as it may, there can be little doubt that the creodonts are related to the Insectivora, which, as stated above, show decided signs of kinship with the marsupials.
Fraas, of Stuttgart, has demonstrated the derivation of the whale-like Zeuglodon from the creodonts.
Andrews has, moreover, not only brought forward additional evidence in favour of this most remarkable line of descent, but is confident - which Professor Fraas was not - that Zeuglodon itself is an ancestral cetacean, and consequently that whales are the highly modified descendants of creodonts.
The extinct creodonts, especially if they be the direct descendants of the anomodont reptiles, may have originated in Africa, although they are at present known in that continent only from the Fayum district.