Description

Daphoenus sp.

Oligocene

White River Formation

Converse County WY USA.

89mm and 84mm pair of jaw sections of an amphicyonid (”bear dog”).

Mammal, Amphicyonid.  Carnivora.

Daphoenus is a genus of the extinct family of carnivorans, the Amphicyonidae, informally called “bear dogs.”  They were not dogs but were related to bears.  Daphoenus was perhaps the earliest member of the group, appearing in the Late Eocene of North America.  It would have looked quite dog-like in life and actually lived in the same faunas as the oldest known dog genus,  Daphoenus survived to the end of the Oligocene.