''Adcrocuta'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of large

hyena Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the sma ...

that lived in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

during the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

Distribution and chronology

Fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

of ''A. eximia'' are known from across Eurasia during the

Vallesian The Vallesian age is a period of geologic time (11.6–9.0 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Turolian age and follows the Astaracian age. The so-called Vallesian Crisis resulted in th ...

Turolian The Turolian age is a period of geologic time (9.0–5.3 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Ruscinian age and follows the Vallesian age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian and Messinia ...

age of the Late

(around 9.6-4.9 million years agoVíctor Vinuesa Joan Madurell-Malapeira, Josep Fortuny & David M. Alba
Endocranial morphology of the Late Miocene bone-cracking hyena ''Adcrocuta eximia'' (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) compared with extant hyenas
XII ENCUENTRO DE JÓVENES INVESTIGADORES EN PALENTOLOGÍA (BOLTAÑA, 2014)), spanning from Europe, including Spain, North Macedonia, France, Romania, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Ukraine and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, and Asia including

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

, Kazkahstan, Iran, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Description

''Adcrocuta'' was comparable in size to a living spotted hyena, with a body mass of around .

Palaeoecology

Like the modern day

spotted hyena The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...

, ''A. eximia'' was an obligate carnivore. The teeth display adaptations to bone cracking, making it one of the earliest hyenas to display evidence of being adapted to this activity, though the shape of the upper

carnassial Carnassials are paired upper and lower teeth modified in such a way as to allow enlarged and often self-sharpening edges to pass by each other in a shearing manner. This adaptation is found in carnivorans, where the carnassials are the modified f ...

tooth suggests that flesh also probably formed a considerable part of its diet. Its body was powerfully built. Some authors have suggested that it was likely not a fast runner, and that it was primarily a scavenger though this has been disputed by other authors, who note its limb bones are no more robust than those of living spotted hyenas. Its considerable size, which made it by a large margin the largest hyena in late Miocene Eurasia, likely made it effective both in

kleptoparasitism Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct f ...

(stealing kills from other carnivores), as well as predating on medium-large sized prey. Based on the morphology of its brain cavity, it probably had a less sophisticated social system than modern bone-cracking spotted hyenas. The presence of ''A. eximia'' has been interpreted as a zoological indicator of open environments, as the species is believed to have had a preference for open grasslands.

References

Miocene feliforms Miocene mammals of Africa Miocene mammals of Asia Prehistoric hyenas Monotypic prehistoric carnivoran genera Fossil taxa described in 1938 Miocene mammals of Europe {{paleo-carnivora-stub