| “ | Despite appearances, Andrewsarchus is not related to modern scavengers, like dogs or hyenas. Bizarrely, he has hoofs on his feet instead of claws. In fact, his nearest modern relatives are hoofed animals, like sheep and goats. | ” |
Andrewsarchus was a huge, carnivorous mammal that was initially thought as a Mesonychid, but is no longer classified as so. It was as tall as a horse and weighing close to a ton, featured in the second episode of Walking with Beasts.
Facts
It is natural behavior for an Andrewsarchus to search for carrion on beaches.
Andrewsarchus was a meat-eater and a scavenger that despite their appearances, were not related to modern scavengers like coyotes, dogs, wolves, or even hyenas. Bizarrely, they had hooves on their feet instead of claws. In fact, their nearest modern relatives are hoofed animals like sheep and goats, as they were related to modern day ungulates (hoofed mammals) on one hand, and to cetaceans (whales and dolphins) on the other. They are, in essence, sheep in wolf's clothing. Roy Chapman Andrews discovered in the 1920's in Mongolia and it got named after himself (Andrewsarchus means Andrews' ruler). Andrewsarchus lived in Mongolia in the late Eocene, from 40 to 35 MYA. At about 5.5 meters long, 2 meters tall and weighing 1 tonne, Andrewsarchus was the largest land mammalian carnivore ever to walk on the Earth.
In Walking With... series
Walking with Beasts
Whale Killer
A pair of these animals harassed a Embolotherium herd and another had hunted sea turtles on the beach earlier. The narrator adds, that scavengers usually go through periods of drought relatively well, but Andrewsarchus failed to do - he was the last of a dying breed, his niche was taken over by new mammals, such as Hyaenodon and Entelodont, introduced in the next episode.
Trivia
- In the Russian dub of Walking with Beasts, Andrewsarchus is called a "condylarthra". Condylarthra is an informal polyphyletic group (sometimes regarded as a wastebasket taxon) that previously contained a variety of ancient ungulates.
- Andrewsarchus shares the same specific name as Velociraptor, that being "mongoliensis".
- Apart from the Arctotherium, this is the largest mammalian land predator of all time.
Gallery
Errors
- Andrewsarchus is now thought to be a Cetancodont, which is a clade that includes whales, entelodonts, and hippos, and its' not related to sheep and goats or Mesonychid.