Percrocutidae

Percrocutidae
Temporal range: Middle Miocene—Late Miocene, 13.7–6.3 Ma
Dinocrocuta gigantea skull cast, Zoological Museum in Copenhagen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Superfamily: Herpestoidea
Family: †Percrocutidae
Werdelin & Solounias, 1991
Genera
Synonyms
  • Percrocutinae (Schmidt-Kittler, 1976)

Percrocutidae is an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivorans endemic to Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe from the Middle Miocene through Late Miocene, from 13.7 to 6.3 Ma.

The first percrocutids are known from the middle Miocene of Europe and western Asia and belonged to the genus Percrocuta. Percrocuta already had large premolars, 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. Although they were later placed as a sister-taxa to Hyaenidae. Anatomical analysis by Xiong argued that perocutids were a subfamily of hyenas. This reclassification has been supported by some experts. Sometimes it was placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea.

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

FamilyImageGenusSpecies
†Percrocutidae †Dinocrocuta (Schmidt-Kittler, 1975)
  • †D. algeriensis
  • †D. gigantea
  • †D. salonicae
  • †D. senyureki
†Percrocuta (Kretzoi, 1938)
  • †P. abessalomi
  • †P. carnifex
  • †P. grandis
  • †P. leakeyi
  • †P. miocenica
  • †P. tobieni
  • †P. tungurensis
  • †P. xixiaensis

The list follows McKenna and Bell's Classification of Mammals for prehistoric genera (1997). 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

  1. 1 2 Khantemirov, Daniyar R.; Gimranov, Dmitriy O.; Jiangzuo, Qi-Gao; Eybatov, Tariel M. (30 August 2025). "Dinocrocuta gigantea from the Upper Miocene site of Eldari, Azerbaijan". Palaeoworld 201007. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2025.201007. Retrieved 7 September 2025 – via ResearchGate.
  2. ↑ Barry, John C. (January 2025). "Siwalik Creodonts and Carnivorans". At the Foot of the Himalayas: Paleontology and Ecosystem Dynamics of the Siwalik Record. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1421450278.
  3. ↑ Raymond Louis Bernor; Volker Fahlbusch; Hans-Walter Mittmann (1996). The Evolution of Western Eurasian Neogene Mammal Faunas. Columbia University Press. pp. 261–265. ISBN 0-231-08246-0.
  4. ↑ Turner, Alan; Antón, Mauricio (2004). Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large-mammal Fauna. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11944-5.
  5. ↑ Figueirido, Borja; Tseng, Zhijie Jack; Martín-Serra, Alberto (2013). "Skull Shape Evolution in Durophagous Carnivorans". Evolution. 67 (7): 1975–1993. doi:10.1111/evo.12059. hdl:10630/32909. PMID 23815654. S2CID 23918004.
  6. ↑ Xiong, Wuyang (2022-05-01). "New species of Percrocuta (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) from the early middle Miocene of Tongxin, China". Historical Biology. 35 (5): 799–820. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2067757. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 248627038.
  7. ↑ Wuyang, Xiong (October 2019). "Basicranial morphology of Late Miocene Dinocrocuta gigantea (Carnivora: Hyaenidae) from Fugu, Shaanxi". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 57 (4): 274–307.
  8. ↑ Barret, Paul Z.; Hopkins, Samatha S. B. (2024). "Mosaic evolution underlies feliform morphological disparity". Proc. R. Soc. B. 291 (2028) 20240756. doi:10.1098/rspb.2024.0756. PMC 11321862. PMID 39137889.
  9. ↑ Thenius, E. (1966). "Zur Stammesgeschichte der Hyänen (Carnivora, Mammalia)". Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde. 31 (4): 292–300.
  10. ↑ Schmidt-Kittler, N. (1976). "Raubtiere aus dem Jungtertiär Kleinasiens". Palaeontographica Abteilung A. 155 (1–4): 1–131.
  11. ↑ Qiu, ZX; Xie, JY; Yan, DF (1988). "Discovery of the skull of Dinocrocuta gigantea". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 26 (2): 128–138.
  12. ↑ Werdelin, L; Solounias, N (1991). "The Hyaenidae: taxonomy, systematics and evolution". Fossils and Strata. 30: 1–104. doi:10.18261/8200374815-1991-01. ISBN 8200374815.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  13. ↑ Lars Werdelin; Björn Kürten (1999). "Allohyaena (Mammalia: Carnivora): giant hyaenid from the Late Miocene of Hungary". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 126 (3): 319–334. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1999.tb01374.x.
  14. ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level in Columbia University Press, New York 1997, 631 Seiten, ISBN 0-231-11013-8