''Enhydrocyon'' is an extinct genus of bone crushing

canid Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). There are three subfamilies found within the ...

which inhabited

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

during the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

and Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

, 30.8—20.4 Ma, existing for approximately . ''Enhydrocyon'' dentition suggests this animal was a

hypercarnivore A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant examp ...

mesocarnivore A mesocarnivore is an animal whose diet consists of 50–70% meat with the balance consisting of non-vertebrate foods which may include insects, fungi, fruits, other plant material and any food that is available to them. Mesocarnivores are from a ...

. Species of ''Enhydrocyon'' were relatively large, powerfully built carnivores with a short snout and deep jaws reminiscent of a jaguar.David Macdonald. The Velvet Claw: A Natural History of the Carnivores. BBC Books: London; 1992. p83. These features give the skull a shape resembling that of the extant

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the small ...

(''Enhydra''), prompting the scientific name. With an estimated weight of about , this was the earliest genus of canid adapted to be specialized predators.

Species

*†''Enhydrocyon basilatus'' Cope 1879 *†''E. crassidens'' Matthew 1907 *†''E. pahinsintewakpa'' Macdonald 1963 *†''E. sectorius'' Cope 1883 *†''E. stenocephalus'' Cope 1879

References

* Hesperocyonines Oligocene canids Miocene canids Aquitanian genus extinctions White River Fauna Prehistoric carnivoran genera Rupelian genus first appearances Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope {{canid-stub