A few Things To Know About Bear-Dogs

Bear-dog skull better known in museum circles as daphoenus. Imagine the body of a greyhoud with the head of a badger. On second thought, don't imagine that.

Bear-dog sketches. Not as easy to paper train as the name would have you believe.

Due to some odd marketing genius, bears are viewed as cuddly, doe-eyed mammals to be gifted to small children. This ignores the more fact-based reality that bears are tanks of furry, muscled, rather indiscriminate eating machines. Canines have an even better PR firm with humanity and have personally worked their way into our daily lives despite also being fairly high up the food chain ladder.  

Today’s topic is one of those evolutionary oddities, the “bear-dog.” Which is only confusing if you expect the world to make sense, because these animals are actually neither a bear or a dog. The five-dollar word for bear-dog’s family is Amphicyonidae. These chowhounds lived in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America for about 40 million years.  

Bear dogs come in a wide range of sizes from humble little ankle biters to some pretty nasty apex predators. Skulls that include teeth/jaws for crushing generally do not belong to animals that your mum will be excited you brought home. Luckily for anyone who likes their head where it is, these carnivores went extinct around a couple million years ago.   
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If it’s the tiny, fox-like bear dogs you like, or the enormous beardogs of the Miocene, the last 40 million years had a lot of bite.

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