Triisodon

Triisodon (ancient Greek: "Tri" (three),"isos" (equal), and modern Greek: "donti" (tooth/teeth), supposedly describing tritubercular lower cheek teeth) is a genus of extinct mesonychian mammal that existed during the Early Paleocene of New Mexico, North America, from about 63.5-62.0 Ma. The genus was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1881 as a member of the Acreodi, a now invalid taxon that encompassed creodonts, mesonychians and certain arctocyonians. Cope described the type specimen of T. quivirensis as "about the size of a wolf." A smaller species, T. crassicuspis, has also been identified from the same region. Since material from this genus is incomplete, the exact size of adults and whether they showed sexual dimorphism or regional variations in size is unknown.

== Description == Triisodon was a rather large and powerful terrestrial mammal, as evident from the robust forelimb morphology. The body mass of Triisodon crassicuspis is estimated at 32-44 kilograms. Triisodon was among the earliest placental mammals to have a predominantly carnivorous diet, and had a skeleton that, like many Paleocene mammals, was not uniformly generalized, combining a simple placental bauplan with many specializations for carnivory.