Beardog

Beardog. . In 1981 while excavating a nearby hill, Dr. Robert Hunt of the University of Nebraska uncovered a large carnivore den complex. The dens had been mainly inhabited by wolf-sized animals called beardogs, the largest carnivores in existence 19 million years ago. These burrows, containing numerous fossil skeletons, represented the oldest known denning behavior of large carnivores., The dens were burrowed into ashy sediment that filled the earlier waterhole. Found inside the dens were scavenged bones of juvenile rhinoceroses, camels, and oreodonts, probable food sources for the beardogs. The presence of a juvenile and an adult female beardog in the same den chamber suggests that the dens were used to care for the young. Some of the den inhabitants probably died simultaneously, perhaps drowning during a flood or dying in a drought. Sediment then filled the dens, preserving them for discovery millions of years later., Captions , Upper Right: Located near the waterhole periphery and burrowed six feet down, the den chambers were similar in size to those of modern wolves and hyenas. , Lower Right: The beardog Daphoenodon was the largest of the five carnivores found in the dens. Besides Daphoenodon, another beardog, a giant wolverine, a small marten, and a tiny fox-like dog were discovered.