Pachycrocuta
| Pachycrocuta Temporal range: Late Pliocene - Middle Pleistocene, 3–0.4Ma | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pachycrocuta brevirostris reconstruction | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Hyaenidae |
| Genus: | †Pachycrocuta |
| Type species | |
| †Pachycrocuta brevirostris | |
| Species | |
|
†P. robusta? | |
Pachycrocuta was a genus of prehistoric hyenas. The largest and most well-researched species is Pachycrocuta brevirostris, colloquially known as the giant hyena as it is estimated to have averaged 110 kg (240 lb) in weight,[1] the size of a lioness, making it the largest known hyena. Pachycrocuta first appeared during the late Pliocene about 3 million years ago and went extinct during the middle Pleistocene, 400,000 years ago.
Fossils
Fossil remains have been found in many localities of Eurasia and southern and eastern Africa. Most material consists of fragmented remains, usually of the skull, but there has been a cache of very comprehensive bone material unearthed at the famous Zhoukoudian locality which probably represents the remains of animals which used these caves as lairs for many millennia,[2] while at the western end of their former range, a huge assemblage of Pleistocene fossils at Venta Micena in southeastern Spain also represents a den.[3]
Other proposed species, P. robusta and P. pyrenaica, are less well researched; the former may simply be an exceptionally large European paleosubspecies of the brown hyena, Hyaena brunnea. Sometimes included in this genus (as Pachycrocuta bellax) is the extinct giant striped hyaena, Hyaena bellax.
Behaviour
It probably was a small-pack hunter of large animals (up to deer size and occasionally larger). Research by anthropologists Noel Boaz and Russell Ciochon on remains of Homo erectus unearthed alongside Pachycrocuta at the Zhoukoudian site attributed scoring and puncture patterns observed on hominid long bones and skulls, originally thought to be signs of cannibalism, to predation by Pachycrocuta.[4] Pachycrocuta may have also scavenged for food. Possibly it preferentially did the latter because it was a very heavyset animal not built for chasing prey over long distances. In this aspect it would have differed from the spotted hyena of today, which is a more nimble animal that, contrary to its image as a scavenger, usually kills its own food but often gets displaced by lions. Apparently it was ecologically close enough to the smaller (but still large) relative Pliocrocuta perrieri that they are never found as contemporary fossils in the same region.
References
- ↑ Palmqvist, P.; Martinez-Navarro, B.; Pérez-Claros, J. A.; Torregrosa, V.; Figueiridio, B.; Jiménez-Arenas, J. M.; Patrocinio Espigares, M.; Ros-Montoya, Sergio; De Renzi, M. (2011). "The giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris: Modelling the bone-cracking behavior of an extinct carnivore". Quaternary International 243 (1): 61. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.12.035.
- ↑ Turner, Alan; Antón, Mauricio (1996). "The giant hyaena Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Mammalia, Carnivora, Hyaenidae)". Geobios 29 (4): 455–468. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(96)80005-2.
- ↑ (BBC Earth News) Matt Walker, "Prehistoric giant hyena's bone-cracking habit", 4 March 2011: accessed 4 March 2011.
- ↑ Boaz, Noel T. et al. (2001). "The Scavenging of 'Peking Man'". Natural History (110): 46–52.