an animal about the size of a grey wolf, but with a larger, longer, flatter skull, shorter legs, five-toed feet, and a slightly longer, thinner tail. in some aspects it looks vaguely thylacine-like, but furrier, and with a large head in proportion to its body. its tail tip is slightly tufted. it is brown with a dark grey-brown snout, back and legs with a brindled pattern across the head, back and tail. around the eyes and sides of the snout are a cream color, the underbelly a slightly more yellowish color. drawn in a cartoony style on a white background. hyaenodon horridus was a carnivorous precursor to modern carnivorans (dogs, cats, bears, seals, weasels, etc.) and had a powerful shearing bite. formerly assigned to the now invalid order creodonta, it is now considered to belong to the order hyaenodonta, which excludes the oxyaenids.

an uncolored, more realistic sketch of the previous image. it does not depict markings except for a slight darker area around the eyes and the tail tip. it has a slightly furrier neck in comparison to the rest of the body. the upper snout is slender like a thylacine’s, but the bottom is thick. the ears resemble a larger version of tasmanian devil’s. the tail somewhat resembles a slightly shaggier, stiffer, more dog-like lion tail.

hyaenodon horridus, i experimented a little bit but i think the more realistic sketch turned out better :P #hyaenodon #hyaenodonta #paleoart #paleontology