Machaeroides ("dagger-like") is a genus of saber-toothed creodont that lived during the Eocene. Its fossils were found in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the earliest known saber-toothed mammal and an early oxyaenid.
Description[]
Either species bore a passing, or superficial resemblance to a very small, dog-sized saber-toothed cat. Machaeroides could be distinguished from actual saber-toothed cats by their more-elongated skulls, and their plantigrade stance. Machaeroides species are distinguished from the closely related Apataelurus by the fact that the former genus had smaller saber-teeth. It was estimated to have weighed 10-14 kg, which would have been the size of a small Staffordshire Terrier.
Taxonomic Placement[]
Although it is undeniably a creodont, its placement within the order is in dispute. Experts seem equally divided over whether Machaeroides and its sister-genus, Apataelurus, belong in Oxyaenidae or Hyaenodontidae, with most experts thinking it belongs to the former.