Definition of creodont in English:
creodont
noun ˈkriːədɒntˈkrēəˌdänt
A fossil carnivorous mammal of the early Tertiary period, ancestral to modern carnivores.
Order Creodonta: several families
Example sentencesExamples
- The brain of the creodonts was generally of relatively small size and their intelligence presumably low.
- New adaptive breakthroughs and evolutionary radiations also are apparent from such morphospace analysis, such as the reoccupation of creodont niches by nimravids, canids, and felids.
- Read about marsupials and creodonts who also grew ‘long in the tooth’.
- The slow clumsy creodonts, well adapted to the jungle thickets, were replaced by the swift intelligent cat and dog type carnivora as the dominant predators.
- In creodont carnivores, such as Hemipsalodon studied here, upper molars have carnassial blades as well.
Origin
Late 19th century: from modern Latin Creodonta (plural), from Greek kreas 'flesh' + odous, odont- 'tooth'.