ON LAND

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about

Bear dog

File:Amphicyon-ingens reconstruction.jpg

Amphicyonidae is an extinct family of terrestrial carnivorans belonging to the suborder Caniformia. They first appeared in North America in the middle Eocene (around 45 mya), spread to Europe by the late Eocene (35 mya), and appear in Asia, and Africa by the early Miocene (23 mya). 

They had largely disappeared worldwide by the late Miocene (8 mya), with the latest recorded species at the end of the Miocene in Pakistan. They were among the first carnivorans to evolve large body size. Later in their history, they came into competition with hesperocyonine and borophagine canids. 

As dogs evolved similar body sizes and cranial and dental adaptations, the rise of these groups may have led to their extinction. Amphicyonids are often colloquially referred to as "bear-dogs".

 Their exact position has long been disputed. Some early paleontologists defined them as members of the family Canidae, but the modern consensus is that they form their own family. Some researchers have defined it as the sister clade to ursids (bears), based on morphological analysis of the ear region.

 However, cladistic analysis and reclassification of several species of early carnivore as amphicyonids has strongly suggested that they may be basal caniforms, from lineages older than the origin of both bears and dogs

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking

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