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
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...
mammal
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...
, belonging to the order
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek to tear, rend; and , gen.
, '
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...
tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once cons ...
. It lived during the Late
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...
, and its fossilized remains were discovered in
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.
Description
This genus is mainly known from cranial materials, and was related to the genus '' Borhyaena''. Its skull had a short snout, strong and large canines, a particularly deep mandible, and molars with reduced talonids and protocones. It also had a swollen cranial vault, and a well-developed temporal fossa. ''Australohyaena'' was one of the largest predators of its environment, weighing up to .
Classification
This genus was until recently only known from isolated teeth, described in 1894 by
Florentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino; September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especial ...
as ''Borhyaena antiqua''. These teeth were later attributed to the genus '' Pharsophorus''. In 2014, the discovery of a complete skull allowed its identification as a new genus, ''Australohyaena''.
''Australohyaena'' is a member of the order
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek to tear, rend; and , gen.
, '
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...
tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once cons ...
, a group of South American mammals similar to marsupials, whose appearance vaguely resembled
placental
Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished ...
carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...
s from the rest of the world.
Paleobiology
Some characteristics of ''Australohyaena'', such as its short muzzle, its large canines, its deep mandibles and its reduced protocone and talonid, indicates that it was an
hypercarnivore
A hypercarnivore is an animal that has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant exampl ...
; the pronounced temporal fossa and the well developed cranial vault indicates that it was able to break bones thanks to its strong teeth, perhaps in a similar behaviour than modern
hyaena
The striped hyena (''Hyaena hyaena'') is a species of hyena native to North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Hyaena''. It is listed by the IUC ...