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| Hello? I want my food! |
This Week’s Weekly Dino Fact was asked again by Webosaurs resident scholar Irvine! Irvine asked, “How did Oxyaena catch it’s prey?” Very interesting question indeed! Let’s dive right in.
The Oxyaena was a creodont mammal that is now extinct, the Oxyaena existed in the very latest portion of the Paleocene and into the early Eocene. Oxyaena technically means “Sharp Hyena,” but these guys were nothing like our modern day Hyenas. For starters they were much smaller, these little guys were only about 3 feet (1 meter) long and had very flexible, cat-like bodies. Although there is nothing like them roaming the Earth today, they most resemble something like a cross between a Lynx and a Wolverine. The main thing that made them so different than cats was that they walked on the whole surface of the soles of their feet unlike cats who walk on only their toes. But I’m getting carried away, back to Irvine’s question; how did the Oxyaena hunt? What do you think?
The Oxyaena hunted in trees! It’s hard to imagine a tiny Hyena hunting in the branches of giant conifers during the Eocene, but that is exactly what they were doing! It’s incredible that they were nimble enough to do this while at the same time walking on the whole surface of their feet, not an easy task. Almost all of the Oxyaena fossils that have been recovered have been found in Colorado, so if you’re ever in the Centennial State, make sure you keep one eye in the tree branches to keep a lookout for Oxyaenas! What do you think of these little critters? Leave your comments here!
TDR
- 26/05/11 - Daily Dino Fact
Megatherium! That looks MEGA!
Hey dinos, this week’s Weekly Dino Fact is ALL ME! I went to a REALLY cool, REALLY excellent museum last Sunday while I was avoiding the Island because you-know-who was there. It was a museum of Natural Sciences and they had some GREAT dinosaur fossils! Including my new favorite Megatherium!
Okay, okay I know that Megatherium is from the Ice Age and not technically a dinosaur, BUT the idea of this beast is just AWESOME. So sloths are already super cool and so CUTE, can you imagine one that is slightly larger than an African Elephant??? Megatherium primarily walked on all fours, but fossilized footprints show that it was capable of standing on two feet to reach high limbs for food. When Megatherium did this it was 20 feet tall!! Imagine for a moment that you were walking through the forest and you heard a crashing coming through the trees and all of a sudden you were face to face with a sloth the size of a house!! What would you do?
The rest of the museum was great… some excellent dino fossils and other animal exhibits, including some really cool animals from other parts of the world that I didn’t even know existed. There was one thing that was SERIOUSLY disturbing and I hope it wasn’t a sign…
SPIKE!
Even as I was trying to avoid him, I couldn’t get away from him, he’s haunting me! Seriously, what a bad dude, we’ve got to get rid of him. What do you think about that creepy Spike in the background? And what do you think about Megatherium? See you on the Island!
TDR
- 1/06/11 (normal), delayed into 8/06/11 - Daily Dino Fact
