Would anyone care to help me identify some specific animals?

[Infinity Blade]

I was watching a portion of the old documentary series The Velvet Claw: A Natural History Of Carnivores and a certain part caught my attention.



From 1:33-1:43, the narrator says, "And even a few dynasties of fierce dogs, like this, evolved. Theirs was the dogs' first attempt to challenge the cats as killers of large prey, but they failed".

It never really goes into any further detail on these canids. I'm wondering about the identities of these creatures and I was wondering if, by any chance, you fellows could help me find out what specific animals the documentary was referring to.

I know this is a question pertaining to a documentary (and we have a documentary section), but I only have one question about it.

[theropod]

Borophagines?

[Infinity Blade]

I don't think so. Right before that, the narrator mentions something along the lines of "dogs with powerful jaws that evolved to scavenge the cats' leftovers" (along with a corresponding picture of what appears to be a borophagine next to a decomposing Synthetoceras carcass).

[Infinity Blade]

I was reminded of this thread when I was notified of HodariNundu's newest drawing on DeviantArt. I have a feeling now that Jacobi may have been referring to Enhydrocyon. At least at the time The Velvet Claw aired (1992), Enhydrocyon was interpreted as a canid that was basically trying to be a big cat (i.e. hunting in a similar manner based on supposed morphological similarities); the book of the same name claims makes this claim. That sounds like something similar to what I quoted above.

Now, that was then and this is now. I'm not sure just how cat-like it really was, but a few things to consider:

- If you look up pictures of Enhydrocyon, you'll see that it does indeed have a very brevirostrine, robust skull.
- Here's a reconstruction of the beast by Mauricio Antón. The body honestly doesn't look all that powerfully built (the trunk looks elongated), although compared to a jackal, I suppose it it is much more so (as the caption says).
- I'm not sure just how useful its claws were for prey acquisition, but consider the fact that Enhydrocyon hails from a basal subfamily of canids. Having at least partially retractable claws was probably a basal trait of carnivorans, so is it possible this canid still retained some amount of claw retractability?