Percrocuta

Per-cro-cu-tah.
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Cassidy Wood

Paleoentomologist

Cassidy Wood uncovers the tiny yet significant world of prehistoric insects. Her research on amber-preserved specimens has revealed intricate details about ancient ecosystems.

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Name

Percrocuta ‭(‬Thorough hyena‭)‬.

Phonetic

Per-cro-cu-tah.

Named By

Classification

Chordata,‭ ‬Mammalia,‭ ‬Carnivora,‭ ‬Percrocutidae.

Diet

Carnivore.

Species

P.‭ ‬abessalomi,‭ ‬P.‭ ‬giganteus,‭ ‬P.‭ ‬hebeiensis,‭ ‬P.‭ ‬miocenica

Size

Around‭ ‬1.5‭ ‬meters long.

Known locations

Across Africa and Asia with countries including Algeria,‭ ‬China,‭ ‬Ethiopia,‭ ‬Libya,‭ ‬Russia,‭ ‬Saudi Arabia,‭ ‬South Africa and Turkey.

Time Period

Langhian of the Miocene through to Zanclean/Piacenzian of the Pliocene.

Fossil representation

Multiple specimens though often of partial remains.

In Depth

       The hyenas had their origin in ancient genera such as Ictitherium,‭ ‬but by the Miocene exceptionally large forms such as Percrocuta had already evolved into a more recognisably hyena form.‭ ‬Percrocuta possessed robust skull and jaws with attachment points that would have allowed for a powerful bite.‭ ‬The rear teeth of Percrocuta however were more adapted for slicing than crunching,‭ ‬something that might suggest a lifestyle that had more of a shift towards predation than actual scavenging‭ (‬although modern hyenas are known to be perfectly capable of killing their own food rather than rely upon scavenging alone‭)‬.

       Percrocuta likely filled a similar ecological niche as todays spotted hyena‭ (‬Crocuta crocuta‭)‬,‭ ‬living and hunting in grassy plains ecosystems.‭ ‬Today the spotted hyena lives alongside big cats such as lions,‭ ‬leopards and cheetahs,‭ ‬but Percrocuta instead lived alongside the ecological forerunners of modern big cats,‭ ‬the barbourofelids.‭ ‬These later would have been replaced by other predators such as true sabre-toothed cats such as Machairodus.‭ ‬Also while the spotted hyena lives alongside populations of wild dogs,‭ ‬Percrocuta likely came into contact with amphicyonids‭ (‬popularly known as bear dogs‭)‬.

       Pack hunting and living in social groups is still hard to establish with certainty for Percrocuta,‭ ‬though given the behaviour of its modern relatives,‭ ‬it is at least considered more probable than solitary living.

Further Reading

– The Late Cenozoic Carnivora of the South-Western Cape Province. – Annals of the South African Museum 63:1-369. – Q. B. Hendey – 1974. – Miocene mammals from Jiulongkou, Ci Xian County, Hebei Province. Vertebrata PalAsiatica (= Gujizhui dongwu yu gurenlei) 14(1):6-15. – G. Chen & W. Wu – 1976. – A new species of Percrocuta from Tongxin, Ningxia. – Vertebrata PalAsiatica 26(2):116-127. – Z. Qiu & J. Cao – 1988. – The Carnivora (Mammalia) from the middle Miocene locality of Gračanica (Bugojno Basin, Gornji Vakuf, Bosnia and Herzegovina). – Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 100 (2): 307–319. – Katharina Bastl, Doris Nagel, Michael Morlo & Ursula B. G�hlich – 2020.

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