So far as our information extends, there were no true Carnivora in the Bridger, all the beasts of prey of the time belonging to the archaic †Creodonta, which then reached their maximum development in numbers and diversity. One family (†Oxyænidæ) included large and powerful flesh-eaters, with cat-like dentition and short, rounded, lion-like heads, long bodies and tails and short, heavy limbs, giving them the proportions of otters. Another (the †Hyænodontidæ) comprised small, long-headed, fox-like and weasel-like animals, which doubtless preyed upon small mammals and birds. A third family (†Mesonychidæ) was made up of moderate-sized, long-jawed creatures, which must have resembled, rather remotely, short-legged and long-tailed wolves and hyenas. Their habits and mode of life are somewhat problematical, for their grinding teeth were blunt, not adapted to the shearing of flesh, and their claws were broad, almost hoof-like. Such creatures could hardly have subsisted by the pursuit of living prey and were probably carrion-feeders and more or less omnivorous. The †Miacidæ, a family which connected the †creodonts and true carnivores and might almost equally well be placed in either group, were externally much like the small †hyænodonts, but were more efficiently equipped for the capture and devouring of prey. [Illustration: FIG. 139.—A mesonychid †creodont (_†Dromocyon velox_) of the Bridger stage. Restored from a skeleton in the Museum of Yale University.] Of the archaic and extinct orders of hoofed animals, the only one which persisted from earlier times into the Bridger and greatly flourished there was the †Amblypoda, one family of which (†Uintatheriidæ) was preëminently characteristic of middle Eocene life, becoming very rare and then dying out in the upper Eocene. The †uintatheres of the Bridger underwent considerable modification in size and appearance within the limits of the stage, the larger and stranger species appearing toward the end of the time. Most of these great creatures may fairly be called gigantic, for they equalled the largest modern rhinoceroses and smaller elephants in size. The body, limbs and feet were so elephantine in character that they were once believed to be ancestral Proboscidea, but the teeth and the fantastic skull were so radically different that this belief was long ago abandoned. The upper canine teeth were converted, in the males, into formidable spear-like or scimitar-like tusks, protected by great flange-shaped expansions of the lower jaw; bony knobs on the end of the nose probably supported a pair of dermal horns like those of a rhinoceros and, in addition, a pair of high, cylindrical, horn-like, bony protuberances arose above the eyes and another, more massive pair, near the back of the head. It would be difficult to imagine more extraordinary creatures than the †uintatheres, which were the largest land-mammals of their time. The family was entirely confined to North America, no trace