Percrocutidae
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Percrocutidae is an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivorans 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. since 2022[update]Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., most scientists considered the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family that evolved their morphology similar to hyenas due convergent evolution,[3] - although they are usually placed sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae.[4] Sometimes it was placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea. A 2022 study placed Dinocrocuta and Percrocuta as true hyaenids, which if correct would invalidate the family Percrocutidae.[3]
Taxonomy and evolution
Taxonomic history
Percrocuta was first considered as a side-branch outside of Hyaenidae by Thenius in 1966.[5] 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.[6] Dinocrocuta was elevated from a subgenus to a full genus in 1988.[7]
The family Percrocutidae was formally elevated in 1991, to include the genera Percrocuta, Dinocrocuta, Belbus and Allohyaena.[8]
Later studies have suggested that Belbus and Allohyaena are true hyaenids and not percrocutids.[9]
Classification
| Family | Image | Genus | Species |
|---|---|---|---|
| †Percrocutidae | File:Dinocrocuta gigantea.jpg | †Dinocrocuta (Schmidt-Kittler, 1975)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". |
|
| †Percrocuta (Kretzoi, 1938)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". |
|
The list follows McKenna and Bell's Classification of Mammals for prehistoric genera (1997).[10] 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
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Paleobiology Database: Percrocutidae basic information
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level in Columbia University Press, New York 1997, 631 Seiten, Template:ISBN
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Jordi Agustí: Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe, Columbia University Press, 2002. Template:LCCN Template:ISBN