Percrocutidae Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene
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Dinocrocuta gigantea skull cast, Zoological Museum in Copenhagen | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Suborder: | Feliformia |
Superfamily: | Herpestoidea |
Family: | Hyaenidae Werdelin & Solounias, 1991 |
Genera | |
Percrocutidae is an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivores endemic to Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe from the Middle Miocene through the Pliocene, existing for about 8 million years.[1]
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.[2] Originally, these carnivores were placed with the hyenas in the family Hyaenidae. As of 2013[update], most scientists considered the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family - although usually as sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae.[3] Sometimes it was placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea. However, studies in the 2020s placed Dinocrocuta and Percrocuta as true hyaenids, invalidating the family Percrocutidae.[4]
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