“Houndoom (Daemonodon cynocephalus) is a cunning mammalian pokemon. While it is an ungulate, its precise classification is still unclear. Despite being related to many peaceful grazers, it is an adept predator, hunting in coordinated packs. They communicate with their packmate using bark and howl like vocalizations. A pack usually consists of a pair of adults and their offsprings, called houndour, though it isn’t uncommon for them to stick around after becoming adults. Males have a pair of scent glands on their chest, appearing like a small skull, that they use to scent mark the pack’s territory.”
Ungulate Houndoom has been living in my mind for a long while. It’s just that no mammalian carnivore ever evolved horns, so sticking a pair of horns on a dog feels wrong. The specific clade though has been hard to pick. A number of ungulates have or had headgears and fangs. At first I had the idea of a muntjac (since they are the only remaining fanged “horned” artiodactyls), but since they shed their antlers I abandoned the idea. The final one is meant to be a protoceratid (Synthetoceras and kin) but it could also be a giraffoid or a relative of Hoplitomeryx
I would guess that the Mega is a condition similar to the Shope papillomavirus that causes horn like growths on the head and body (hence the whole “can only live in that state for a short time”). TW: it’s pretty nasty, don’t look it up if you’re sensible to body horror
