See text Mesonychidae (meaning "middle claws") is an extinct family of small to large-sized omnivorous-carnivorous mammals.

Mesonychid taxonomy has long been disputed and they have captured popular imagination as "wolves on hooves", animals that combine features of both ungulates and carnivores.

In this case, the resemblances to early whales would be due to convergent evolution among ungulate-like herbivores that developed adaptations related to hunting or eating meat.

Like the Paleocene family Arctocyonidae, mesonychids were once viewed as primitive carnivorans, and the diet of most genera probably included meat or fish.

Since other carnivores such as the creodonts and Carnivora were either rare or absent in these animal communities, mesonychids most likely dominated the large predator niche in the Paleocene of Asia.