Named By: | Granger in 1938 |
Time Period: | 35 Ma Late Eocene |
Location: | Mongolia - Irdin Manha Formation, further material attributed from the Ulan Shireb Beds |
Size: | Reconstructed skull length about 46 centimetres long |
Diet: | Carnivore |
Fossil(s): | Skulls and mandibles (lower jaws) |
Classification: | | Chordata | Mammalia | Creodonta | Oxyaenidae | |
Sarkastodon is an extinct genus within the family Oxyaenidae that lived during the upper Eocene, approximately 35 million years ago. It was a large, carnivorous animal that lived in what is today Mongolia. Sarkastodon is known only from a skull and jawbones. Sarkastodon, like creodonts in general, was probably a hypercarnivore that preyed on large mammals in its range during the Late Eocene, such as brontotheres, chalicotheres, and rhinoceroses. Its weight is estimated at 800 kg (1,800 lb).