Hey, folks of the #fediverse will y'all indulge me in my special interest and talk to me about dinosaurs, please? I wanna know what your favorite dinosaurs are and why and any other fun facts or anything really you wanna tell me about dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles, actually, I like prehistoric animals in general, so if there's an extinct mammal you'd rather comment about, I'm down for this too. #Prehistoric #dinosaurs
@Fanfalla There's a group of prehistoric hyenas, running hyenas - longer limbed and more cursorial than existing hyenas. Even though there were landbridges from Asia to North America, the area around them was apparently just more tailored to small animals than large prey, and even though lots of canines made it to Eurasia, only one hyenid wound up in North America, one of the running hyenas, genus is Chasmoporthetes.
@Fanfalla Hyenodons *aren't* actually related! Would you believe they're their own completely independent thing, in the Eocene; hyenas actually show up in the Miocene, much later!
@Leucrotta Wow, I had no idea! That's fascinating! :3
@Leucrotta That's so cool! I've heard of hyenadon, but that's the only ancient hyena relative I know anything about. I wonder if/ how closely they're related.