Dissacus europaeus

Dissacus (Dissacus  Cope, 1881)

 

Order: †Mesonychia

Family: †Mesonychidae

Temporal range: during the Paleocene through Eocene epochs 66—50.3 mya, existing for approximately 15.7 million years ago.

Size: 1.3 m in length, 60 cm in height, 10-20 kg of weight.

A typical representative: Dissacus europaeus

 

Dissacus is an extinct carnivorous jackal to coyote-sized mammal of the family Mesonychidae.

Dissacus had a Holarctic distribution but Dissacus europaeus was the only mesonychid in present-day Europe. The fossil record of this species is fragmentary; remains in Cernay, France, include a mandible, a complete radius, and fragments of a humerus. A morphological study of these bones suggests this animal was digitigrade and more cursorial than is usually assumed for the genus.

mesonychidae, carnivore, dissacus, carnivorous, mesonychid, ungulates, predator, paleocene, eocene