Motley Wrote:A hyena is a cross between feline and canine, or so I've heard from those nature shows. Are your females dominant?
A hyena is technically from the Feliformia suborder (within the order Carnivora,) and this suborder includes cats (Felidae,) Civets and Mongooses (few different families, including Eupleridae, Herpestidae (this one includes Meerkats,) and Viverridae,) and Hyaenidae (hyenas, obviously.) If you study hyenas themselves there often appear to be both "dog like" and "cat like" traits. But they are not the only creatures within this family to cross borders like that. Even within the Felidae, you can find Cheetahs. They are cats most certainly, but can be quite dog-like. Their claws are non-retractable and blunted, like a canine's. They appear to take quite well to domestication and can be trained for aid in hunting with humans.
The only type of Hyenas that have female domination is the Spotted Hyena. Other species have little sexual dimorphism, perhaps with males being slightly larger than females. Spotted Hyena females are not only larger than the males, they have pseudo-male genetalia which, among other things, gives them complete control over whom they decide to mate with (impossible without her full co-operation) and makes birth (especially the first one) rather dangerous/difficult. To the best of my knowledge they are the only type of Hyena with these traits.
Many other creatures within the Feliformia suborder could be described as having both feline-esque and canine-esque traits. Some types of Mongoose, for example.
Outside of Feliformia, if you look at Foxes (not always included with Canidae) they are often thought of as being both cat- and dog-like.
I am sure there are many more creatures that I am missing, and this does not even include species which became extinct before humans ever started recording observations of their behaviour (let alone ones which became extinct before humans came around.) We can only guess at the behaviour of these creatures; sure we can make pretty "close" educated guesses based on many factors, but it is still just a guess.
If these beings were present at the "beginning" of this world, our planet Earth, I would have to guess that they are perhaps some type of spiritual being, or celestial ("of the stars,") or just an "alien" to this planet Earth; something along those lines. Unless you are speaking of some of the very first self-replicating "organisms." Or a rock.