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The bear dog , also calledAmphicyon , divvy up features of bear ( sound - bodied , with feet planted flat on the ground ) and heel ( comparatively foresightful peg and long snout ) , but they are neither bears ( family Ursidae ) nor dogs ( family Canidae ) .
They were not specifically in the bear ’s or dog ’s scientific family , but they are classified in the Caniformia , or " dog - like " suborder . forward-looking animals in the Caniformia suborder include savage , dodger , domestic dog , bears , ocean lions and weasels . This make pay dogs something like cousins to their namesakes . Also , these bear dogs should not be confused with the modern frump stock , theKarelian bear pawl .
Neither bear nor dog, these extinct animals evolved to be massive predators.
There were two main types of bear dog . Some , likeBorocyon robustum , had long limbs that were idealistic for persist and attend much like modern wolf . Others , such asAmphicyon longiramus , were thickset and looked more like modern bear , allot to theFlorida Museum of Natural History .
Size
Much like dogs and bears of today , carry andiron had a range of size . They could weigh just few Lebanese pound or grow to over 1,000 pound . ( 450 kg ) . It is cerebrate that the former evolutions of the bear dog-iron were very minor , around Chihuahua size . As they continued to germinate , they seemed to have become more and more larger , according toThe Field Museum .
germinate into bigger creature has several advantages and disadvantages . While becoming bigger would have enable them to take down bigger prey and be gamey on the food chain , they also would have required more nutrient and reproduced more slow .
" Their massiveness suggest that they could prey upon many form of mammals and other beast . Fortunately , they were extinct before human race appeared on the picture , " said Wilkins .
Habitat
Bear hot dog first come out in Eurasia during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs ( 55.8 million to 23 million years ago ) , clock time period full of warm atmospheric condition and thick vegetation . The temperature around the reality stay around 86 degrees Fahrenheit ( 30 Celsius ) during the Eocene full stop , according to theUniversity of California Museum of Paleontology .
Though the temperatures cooled in theOligocene , it was still quite strong and vegetation expand in most locations around the world , including North America and Africa . Bear dogs became extinct 5 million to 10 million years ago .
Diet
The bear dog ’s teeth were influence to allow for an omnivorous diet , much like forward-looking bear and forward-looking dogs . Prey for little bear dogs may have included rodents while great beardogs would have eaten declamatory animals such as wild hogs . Bear dogs may have also enjoy leaf and berries .
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