Mesonychia and Creodonta: Chapter 2

Late Eocene, Pakistan

What appears to be a large cat creeps carefully through shrubs and trees. It is stalking a herd of Embolotherium. A second cat, the first ones mate, walks up beside him then they walk in opposite directions, going halfway around the clearing the herd is browsing in. Their target, a young calf, wanders away from its mother. The cats spring out of their hiding place, kill the calf and drag it into the scrub before the herd have time to react.

As they eat the calf their teeth reveal that they aren't cats, but are Creodonts, another group of predatory mammals. This particular species is Pantheratitan, and at 4m long it's one of the largest Creodonts ever. While they feast they keep an eye out for hungry predators that might take their kill, because all though they are large, they aren't the largest.

One of the Pantheratitan smells another carnivore. He searches in the distances and, running towards them, sees Parandrewsarchus, the largest mammalian carnivore ever. He growls a warning and motions to his mate and they abandon the carcass. Even though they outnumber the Parandrewsarchus 2:1, he is 1.5m bigger then them and could easily kill or fatally wound one or both of them.

Robbed of their meal, the Pantheratitan pair go down to a nearby river to drink. A female Nothovulpes and her pups drinking at the river scatter as they approach. As they drink a deceivably crocodilian shaped head swims down the river. But the head is covered in fur, and yet it is not Ambulocetus, present in both this and our timeline. It is actually a mesonychian adapted to live in the water and feed off animals coming to drink. But the Pantheratitan are too large to be prey items for it, so it keeps on swimming.

Several growls from across the river alert the pair of the arrival of another pair of Pantheratitan. Regardless that the river divides their territories, each pair growls and raises their hackles, but this is mainly to reinforce the boundary between them. In the end both pairs leave the river, and our pair searches for another prey item.

After a while of searching they reach the beginnings of a mangrove forest and find a dying Rhinotitan. They don't have long to wait before it is dead and they can eat. When they have eaten all they can they rest in the lengthening shadows of the mangroves. In their absence vultures and Nothovulpes begin to bicker over the remaining meat on the carcass. The male licks his mate and she licks him in return, their way of showing affection for each other.

As the sun sets, the male mounts the female. While they mate, smaller nocturnal creodonts run among the scrubs hunting for small mammals and birds. The sounds of aquatic mesonychians splashing is heard with the last calls of early primates ringing out from the mangrove swamp before the callers go to sleep. The sun finally sets, silhouetting a herd of Embolotherium before it disappears bellow the horizon.

Pantheratitan:
A 4m long, cat like predator. One of the last of the "archaic" Creodonts.

Parandrewsarchus:
Identicle to the Andrewsarchus of our timeline.

Nothovulpes:
A small, fast mesonychian that preys on birds and small mammals. It is the ancesstor of the most succesful branch of modern mesonychians.

Aquatic mesonychians:
Pottomotherium and Mammalosuchus are the aquatic mesonychians that appear in this Chapter in that order. Pottomotherium takes animals at the lakeside, while Mammalosuchus eats fish and crustaceans.

Small Nocturnal Creodonts:
Among these are Apatofelis, Vermifelis and Neocreodont. They are the first members of the "modern" or "new" creodonts.