''Hyaenictitherium'' 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 ...

hyaenids Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliformia, feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the Family (biology), family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the orde ...

that lived throughout

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 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, and possibly

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

during the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

and

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, ''H. hyaenoides'', was similar in size to a

striped hyena 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 IU ...

, whereas the smaller ''H. minimum'' was close in size to a

jackal Jackals are Canidae, canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe Canina (subtribe), canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-b ...

. ''Hyaenictitherium'' may represent a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

group. Some authors argue that '' Hyaenotherium'' (Semenov, 1989) is a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''Hyaenictitherium'', and that species belonging to this genus (''H. wongii'' and ''H. ebu'') should be included in ''Hyaenictitherium''.

Taxonomy

''Hyaenictitherium'' was erected by Kretzoi (1938) with ''H. hyaenoides'' as the type species. ''H. venator'' was later described by Semenov (1989). Werdelin & Solounias (1991) in their review of Hyaenidae included ''H. parvum'', ''H. namaquensis'', and ''H. pilgrimi'' in this genus. ''H. minimum'' was later described by Bonis et al. (2005). ''H. barbarum'' was tentatively assigned to ''Hyaenictitherium'' by Geraads et al. (2010). Some authors include species assigned to the genus ''Hyaenotherium'', including ''H. wongii'' and ''H. ebu'', under ''Hyaenictitherium''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4138182 Prehistoric hyenas Prehistoric carnivorans Cenozoic mammals of Africa Cenozoic mammals of Asia Prehistoric carnivoran genera Miocene carnivorans Miocene first appearances Miocene feliforms Hyenas Fossil taxa described in 1938 Fossils of Asia Fossils of Africa