Percrocutidae Temporal range:
Middle Miocene to
Late Pliocene
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Dinocrocuta gigantea skull cast, Zoological Museum in Copenhagen | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Suborder: | Feliformia |
Superfamily: | Herpestoidea |
Family: | †
Percrocutidae Werdelin & Solounias, 1991 |
Genera | |
Percrocutidae is an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivores endemic to Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe from the Middle Miocene through the Pliocene, existing for about 8 million years. [1]
The first percrocutids are known from the middle Miocene of Europe and western Asia and belonged to the genus Percrocuta. Percrocuta already had large premolars, but did not carry such a massive bite as the later form Dinocrocuta, from the later Miocene. [2] Originally, these carnivores were placed with the hyenas in the family Hyaenidae. As of 2013 [update], most scientists considered the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family - although usually as sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae. [3] Sometimes it was placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea. However, studies in the 2020s placed Dinocrocuta and Percrocuta as true hyaenids, invalidating the family Percrocutidae. [4]
Percrocuta was first considered as a side-branch outside of Hyaenidae by Thenius in 1966. [5] It was later named as a different subfamily, Percrocutinae, of Hyaenidae in 1976, and at that time was proposed to include Percrocuta, Adcrocuta eximia, and Allohyaena kadici. [6] Dinocrocuta was elevated from a subgenus to a full genus in 1988. [7]
The family Percrocutidae was formally elevated in 1991, to include the genera Percrocuta, Dinocrocuta, Belbus and Allohyaena. [8]
Later studies have suggested that Belbus and Allohyaena are true hyaenids and not percrocutids. [9]
Family | Image | Genus | Species |
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†Percrocutidae | † Dinocrocuta (Schmidt-Kittler, 1975) |
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† Percrocuta (Kretzoi, 1938) |
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The list follows McKenna and Bell's Classification of Mammals for prehistoric genera (1997). [10] In contrast to McKenna and Bell's classification, they are not included as a subfamily into the Hyaenidae but as a separate family Percrocutidae.