Percrocutidae is an extinct family of

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

-like

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, Canifor ...

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

s endemic to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

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

, and

Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alba ...

from the Middle Miocene through the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first 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 means "less recent" ...

of Europe and

western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes A ...

and belonged to the genus '' Percrocuta''. ''Percrocuta'' already had large

premolar The premolars, also called premolar teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant in the permanent set of teeth, making eight premolars total in the mouth ...

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. Today, most scientists consider the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family - although usually as sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae.Borja Figueirido, Zhijie JACK Tseng, Alberto Martín-Serra
Skull Shape Evolution In Durophagous Carnivorans
''Evolution'' 67(7):1975-93 · July 2013 DOI: 10.1111/evo.12059 · Source: PubMed Sometimes it is placed with the family

Stenoplesictidae Stenoplesictidae is the name of a polyphyletic family of extinct civet-like feliforms. Taxonomy Classification Phylogenetic tree The cladogram shown below represents the current phylogenetic relationships of members of family Stenoplesictid ...

into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea. However, studies in the 2020s have placed ''Dinocrocuta'' and ''Percrocuta'' as true hyaenids, simultaneously invalidating the family Percrocutidae.

Taxonomy

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.

References

* Jordi Agustí: ''Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe'', Columbia University Press, 2002. Miocene carnivorans Prehistoric mammal families Miocene first appearances Piacenzian extinctions {{paleo-carnivora-stub