Creodonta ("meat teeth") is a former order of extinct carnivorous placental mammals that lived from the early Paleocene to the late Miocene epochs in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Originally thought to be a single group of animals ancestral to the modern Carnivora, this order is now usually considered a polyphyletic assemblage of two different groups, the Oxyaenids and the Hyenodonts, not a natural group. Oxyaenids are first known from the Palaeocene of North America, while hyaenodonts hail from the Palaeocene of Africa.[10]
Creodonts were the dominant carnivorous mammals from 55 to 35 million years ago, peaking in diversity and prevalence during the Eocene.[11] The first large, obviously carnivorous mammals appeared with the radiation of the oxyaenids in the late Paleocene.[12] During the Paleogene, "creodont" species were the most abundant terrestrial carnivores in the Old World.[13] In Oligocene Africa, hyaenodonts were the dominant group of large flesh-eaters, persisting until the middle of the Miocene.
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