Pliocrocuta
| Pliocrocuta Temporal range:
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Hyaenidae |
| Genus: | †Pliocrocuta Kretzoi, 1938 |
| Species | |
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Pliocrocuta is an extinct genus of hyena.[1] It contains the species Pliocrocuta perrieri, known from the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Eurasia and possibly Africa. It is possibly ancestral to Pachycrocuta,[2] with some authors including P. perrieri within Pachycrocuta.[3] It is largely known from cranial remains.[4] The species is estimated to have weighed around 56 kilograms (123 lb) on average, with its skull showing evidence for adaptation to bone cracking.[5] It may have have been solitary, unlike living bone cracking spotted hyenas.[6]
P. perrieri first appeared during the Pliocene, around 4.2 million years ago.[4] In the earliest Pleistocene (2.6-2 million years ago) of Europe, Pliocrocuta lived alongside the fellow hyena Chasmaporthetes, the sabertooth cats Megantereon and Homotherium, the giant cheetah Acinonyx pardinensis, the cougar-relative Puma pardoides, the primitive lynx Lynx issiodorensis, the bear Ursus etruscus, and the wild dog Xenocyon falconeri. Pliocrocuta became extinct in Europe around 2 million years ago as part of a major faunal turnover event where many European animals became extinct and were replaced by immigrants from elsewhere, with Pliocrocuta being replaced by Pachycrocuta in this transition.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Palombo, M. R.; Sardella, R.; Novelli, M. (2008). "Carnivora dispersal in Western Mediterranean during the last 2.6Ma". Quaternary International. 179 (1): 176–189. Bibcode:2008QuInt.179..176P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.08.029.
- ^ Iannucci, Alessio; Mecozzi, Beniamino; Sardella, Raffaele; Iurino, Dawid Adam (November 2021). "The extinction of the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris and a reappraisal of the Epivillafranchian and Galerian Hyaenidae in Europe: Faunal turnover during the Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition". Quaternary Science Reviews. 272: 107240. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107240.
- ^ Pérez-Claros, J. A (2024). "Unravelling the origin of the brown hyena (Parahyena brunnea) and its evolutionary and paleoecological implications for the Pachycrocuta lineage". Palaeontologia Electronica. doi:10.26879/1372.
- ^ a b Vinuesa, Victor; ANSÓN, Marco (2014). "New cranial remains of Pliocrocuta perrieri (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) from the Villafranchian of the Iberian Peninsula". Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana (1): 39–47. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2014.04. ISSN 0375-7633.
- ^ Vinuesa, Víctor; Madurell-Malapeira, Joan; Fortuny, Josep; Alba, David M. (September 2015). "The Endocranial Morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene Bone-Cracking Hyena Pliocrocuta perrieri: Behavioral Implications". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 22 (3): 421–434. doi:10.1007/s10914-015-9287-8. ISSN 1064-7554.
- ^ a b Konidaris, George E. (2022-09-07). "Guilds of large carnivorans during the Pleistocene of Europe: a community structure analysis based on foraging strategies". Lethaia. 55 (2): 1–18. doi:10.18261/let.55.2.5. ISSN 0024-1164.
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