Pliocrocuta
Extinct genus of carnivores
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Pliocrocuta is an extinct genus of hyena.[1] It contains the species Pliocrocuta perrieri, known from the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Eurasia and possibly Africa. It is possibly ancestral to Pachycrocuta,[2] with some authors including P. perrieri within Pachycrocuta.[3] It is largely known from cranial remains.[4] The species is estimated to have weighed around 56 kilograms (123 lb) on average, with its skull showing evidence for adaptation to bone cracking.[5] It may have been solitary, unlike living bone cracking spotted hyenas.[6]
| Pliocrocuta Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Skull | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Hyaenidae |
| Genus: | †Pliocrocuta Kretzoi, 1938 |
| Species | |
| |
P. perrieri first appeared during the Pliocene, around 4.2 million years ago.[4] In the earliest Pleistocene (2.6-2 million years ago) of Europe, Pliocrocuta lived alongside the fellow hyena Chasmaporthetes, the sabertooth cats Megantereon and Homotherium, the giant cheetah Acinonyx pardinensis, the cougar-relative Puma pardoides, the primitive lynx Lynx issiodorensis, the bear Ursus etruscus, and the wild dog Xenocyon falconeri. Pliocrocuta became extinct in Europe around 2 million years ago as part of a major faunal turnover event where many European animals became extinct and were replaced by immigrants from elsewhere, with Pliocrocuta being replaced by Pachycrocuta in this transition.[6]
