feliform
Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, viverrids, and related taxa. Feliformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Cani ...
carnivorans
Carnivora ( ) is an Order (biology), order of Placentalia, placental mammals specialized primarily in eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at ...
endemic to
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 ...
,
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
Southern Europe
Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...
from the
Middle Miocene
The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene.
The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...
through the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Ma --> existing for about .
The first percrocutids are known from the middle
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 ...
of Europe and
western Asia
West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
and belonged to the genus '' Percrocuta''. ''Percrocuta'' already had large
premolar
The premolars, also called premolar Tooth (human), teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the Canine tooth, canine and Molar (tooth), molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per dental terminology#Quadrant, quadrant in ...
s, but did not carry such a massive bite as the later form '' Dinocrocuta'', from the later Miocene. Originally, these carnivores were placed with the hyenas in the family Hyaenidae. , most scientists considered the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family that evolved their morphology similar to hyenas due
convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...
, - although they are usually placed sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae. Sometimes it was placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea. A 2022 study placed ''Dinocrocuta'' and ''Percrocuta'' as true hyaenids, which if correct would invalidate the family Percrocutidae.
Taxonomy and evolution
Taxonomic history
''Percrocuta'' was first considered as a side-branch outside of Hyaenidae by Thenius in 1966. 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''. ''Dinocrocuta'' was elevated from a subgenus to a full genus in 1988.
The family Percrocutidae was formally elevated in 1991, to include the genera ''Percrocuta'', ''Dinocrocuta'', '' Belbus'' and ''Allohyaena''.
Later studies have suggested that ''Belbus'' and ''Allohyaena'' are true hyaenids and not percrocutids.
Classification
The list follows McKenna and Bell's ''Classification of Mammals'' for prehistoric genera (1997).Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: '' Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level'' in Columbia University Press, New York 1997, 631 Seiten, In contrast to McKenna and Bell's classification, they are not included as a subfamily into the Hyaenidae but as a separate family Percrocutidae.