Percrocutidae

Percrocutidae Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene
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
†Dinocrocuta †Percrocuta †Tongxinictis

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]