Percrocuta

Percrocuta
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Late Miocene
Jaws and teeth of P. tobieni
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Hyaenidae
Subfamily: †Percrocutinae
Genus: †Percrocuta
Kretzoi, 1938
Type species
Percrocuta carnifex[1]
Pilgrim, 1913
Species
  • †Percrocuta abessalomi Gabunia, 1958
  • †Percrocuta carnifex Pilgrim, 1913
  • †Percrocuta grandis Kurtén, 1957[2]
  • †Percrocuta leakeyi Howell & Petter, 1985
  • †Percrocuta miocenica Pavolović & Thenius, 1965
  • †Percrocuta tobieni[3] Crusafont & Aguirre, 1971
  • †Percrocuta xixiaensis Xiong, 2022[4]
  • †Percrocuta tungurensis (Colbert, 1939)[4]
Synonyms

Capsatherium Kurtén, 1978

Percrocuta is an extinct genus of percrocutid hyena. It lived in Eurasia and Africa, during the Miocene epoch.

Description

With a maximum length of 1.50 m (5 ft), Percrocuta was much bigger than its modern relatives. Like the spotted hyena, it had a robust skull and powerful jaws. Similar to modern hyaenids, its hind legs were shorter than the front legs, resulting in a characteristic sloping back.[5] However, not all species were larger than modern hyenas. P. xixiaensis is described to being close to size of the striped hyena. The zygomatic arch of this species was slender a hyena its size suggesting the cranium isn’t as strongly built was other bone crushing hyenas such as Dinocrocuta, Pachycrocuta, striped hyena, Adcrocuta, and Crocuta.[4]

P. miocenia was estimated to have weighed between 30–100 kg (66–220 lb).[6]

Classification

Percrocuta was introduced as a genus of Hyaenidae in 1938.[1] Percrocuta's relation to the family was debated until 1985, when Percrocuta, Dinocrocuta, Belbus, and Allohyaena were accepted as the four genera of Percrocutidae.[7] More recent evidence, however, has shown that Belbus and Allohyaena at least, are not percrocutids.[8]

Fossil evidence

P. abessalomi is known only from a skull, two mandibles, and two teeth. These fossils were all collected from the Belomechetskaja, Russia area and date from the sixth Mammal Neogene (MN) zone. This species is the best known of the family Percrocutidae.[citation needed] P. miocenica is known from only a few mandibles, found in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey.[9][10] These fossils are also dated to MN 6.[7]

Palaeobiology

Palaeoecology

Because its skull morphology is highly convergent with that of present day osteophagous hyaenids, Percrocuta was likely durophagous as well.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Kretzoi, M. (1938). "Die Raubtiere von Gombaszög nebst einer Übersicht der Gesamtfauna" (PDF). Annales Musei Nationalis Hungarici. 31: 88–153. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 May 2023.
  2. ^ Koufos, George D. (1995). "The late Miocene percrocutas of Macedonia (Greece)". Palaeovertebrata. 24 (1–2): 67–84.
  3. ^ Lars Werdelin (2019). "'Middle Miocene Carnivora and Hyaenodonta from Fort Ternan, western Kenya" (PDF). Geodiversitas. 41 (6).
  4. ^ a b c Xiong, W. (2022). "New species of Percrocuta (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) from the early middle Miocene of Tongxin, China". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology: 1–22. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2067757. S2CID 248627038.
  5. ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 221. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
  6. ^ Morlo, Michael; Gunnell, Gregg F.; Nagel, Doris (2010). "10 - Ecomorphological analysis of carnivore guilds in the Eocene through Miocene of Laurasia". Carnivoran Evolution. Cambridge University Press. pp. 269–310. ISBN 9781139193436.
  7. ^ a b Raymond Louis Bernor; Volker Fahlbusch; Hans-Walter Mittmann (1996). The Evolution of Western Eurasian Neogene Mammal Faunas. Columbia University Press. pp. 261–265. ISBN 0-231-08246-0.
  8. ^ Werdelin, Lars; Kürten, Björn (1999). "Allohyaena (Mammalia: Carnivora): giant hyaenid from the Late Miocene of Hungary". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 126 (3): 319–334. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1999.tb01374.x.
  9. ^ Bastl, Katharina; Nagel, Doris; Morlo, Michael; Göhlich, Ursula B. (June 2020). "The Carnivora (Mammalia) from the middle Miocene locality of Gračanica (Bugojno Basin, Gornji Vakuf, Bosnia and Herzegovina)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 100 (2): 307–319. doi:10.1007/s12549-018-0353-0. ISSN 1867-1594.
  10. ^ Radović, Predrag; Mayda, Serdar; Alaburić, Sanja; Marković, Zoran (2021-04-01). "Percrocuta miocenica (Percrocutidae, Carnivora) from the middle Miocene of Brajkovac (Central Serbia)". Geobios. 65: 41–49. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2021.02.001. ISSN 0016-6995. S2CID 233574168.
  11. ^ Pérez-Claros, Juan A. (25 November 2022). "An ecomorphological characterization of the percrocutoid hyaenids: a multivariate approach using postcanine dentition". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 42 (5). doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2197972. ISSN 0272-4634. Retrieved 7 March 2026 – via Taylor and Francis Online.


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