Falcatodon

Morales and Pickford (2017, p. 344) diagnose Falcatodon as follows: "Medium sized Hyainailourinae, differing from Metapterodon by the reduction of the protocone in the upper molars (M1 – M2), which is located in a very anterior position. It differs from Hyainailouros by the more sectorial morphology of the upper molars, with more advanced fusion of the paracone-metacone with, nevertheless, a groove separating the cusps visible in the M1. Lower molars sectorial with reduced talonid and without a metaconid. It differs from Isohyaenodon, Sectisodon and Exiguodon, by the lesser reduction of the protocone in the upper molars which, above all, retain a stretched out subtriangular occlusal outline."[1]

Falcatodon was originally described as a new species of Metapterodon, M. schlosseri, by Holroyd (1999), who nonetheless recognized that Eocene and Oligocene hyainailourids he assigned to Metapterodon might prove generically distinct.[2] Subsequent study demonstrated that Falcatodon is not only distinct from Metapterodon but also closely related to Isohyaenodon.[1]