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Percrocutidae
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The Percrocutidae form an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivorans, and that likely filled an equivalent ecological niche. 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.
Originally, these carnivores were placed with the hyenas in the family Hyaenidae.
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The Percrocutidae form an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivorans, and that likely filled an equivalent ecological niche. 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.
Originally, these carnivores were placed with the hyenas in the family Hyaenidae. Today, most scientists consider Procrutidae to be a distinct family -- although sometimes it is placed with carnivoran genera such as Stenoplesictis into the family Stenoplesictidae.
Genera of Percrocutids
- Percrocuta (including Capsatherium; Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene of Africa, Middle to Late Miocene of Eurasia)
- Dinocrocuta (Middle Miocene of Africa, Middle to Late Miocene of Asia)
- Belbus (Late Miocene of Asia)
- Allohyaena (=Xenohyaena; Middle to Late Miocene of Eurasia)
The list follows McKenna and Bells Classification of Mammals for prehistoric genera (1997).[Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level in Columbia University Press, New York 1997, 631 Seiten, ISBN 0-231-11013-8] In contrast to McKenna and Bell's classification they are not included as a subfamily into the Hyaenidae but as a separate family Percrocutidae.
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