Merycoidodontidaea is correct but less comfortable to spell than oreodonts. The important content is that these belong to the Tylopoda, the most ancient side branch of crown-group artiodactyls that split off the highly diverse bovid lineage even before pigs, whales & hippos, giraffes and deer. Today, only the closely related genera Camelus and Lama remain of the tylopods. They once had a much broader disparity, as the merycoidodontids prove.
On the left, you see the somewhat hippopotamus-like Promerycochoerus, on the right the tapir-like Brachycrus. Both were about 1 m in length and inhabited North America during the Miocene. These studies were later completed in full oil paintings on illustration board, but for some reason I liked the preliminary stages more than the final result. There was no certain project, just an announced topic for Prehistoric Times (those days I had time for stuff).
