Early Miocene Horse Hocks with Bite Damage

These are the calcanea (sing. "calcaneum") of two sheep-size horses from the Early Miocene. The bite damage is from the teeth of bear-dogs. I say bear-dogs (Amphicyonidae) because at the time (~20 Ma) there were no cats in Florida. True dogs (Canidae) were small. There were bear ancestors, but they were very rare. Bear-dogs, on the other hand were large and abundant and found at the same site.

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