Vulpavus was a genus of Miacid that existed 34 million years ago. It is a likely ancestor to all of the order Carnivora. Likely arboreal, Vulpavus would have hunted similarly to cats today-- pretty much anything smaller than itself. This early arboreal lifestyle is important in regards to Carnivorans to come. In order to safely scale trees, Miacids had to evolve wrist bones that allowed them to rotate their paws. While most of Carnivora stick to the ground nowadays, this feature gave them an edge over their early competitors, the Creodonts. Creodonts could not move their wrists in such a fashion, and were limited to using their jaws for hunting (hence their large skulls) while the Carnivorans who moved in were given the opportunity for more varied hunting strategies. As commonly seen in arboreal animals and their descendants (just look at us!), Carnivorans also have larger brains. While Canids seem to have "reverted" back to the use of jaws for hunting, they are able to run more efficiently on their small paws, and their added brain power lets them make up for their smaller jaws through pack hunting (something Creodonts were much too dull for). Dogs who don't hunt in packs tend to either take carrion or small prey like rabbits (compare prey selection of pack hunting wolves and solitary or pair hunting coyotes). Cats, however use their paws for hunting, which enables them to take down prey larger than themselves, even the solitary cats like tigers.
