Ictitherium

Ictitherium (meaning "weasel beast") is an extinct genus belonging to the family Hyaenidae and the subfamily Ictitheriinae erected by Trouessart in 1897.^[1] Ictitherium lived throughout Eurasia during the Late Miocene.^[2]

Ictitherium Temporal range: Late Miocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N (Vallesian to Turolian)
Skeletal mount, Tianjin Natural History Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Hyaenidae
Subfamily:	†Ictitheriinae
Genus:	†Ictitherium Wagner, 1848
Type species
†Ictitherium viverrinum Roth & Wagner, 1854
Species
†I. tauricum Borissiak, 1915 †I. pannonicum Kretzoi, 1952 †I. intuberculatum Ozansoy, 1965 †I. ibericum Meladze, 1967 †I. kurteni Werdelin, 1988
Synonyms
Genus synonymy Paraictitherium Ducrotay, 1903 Leptohyaena Depéret, 1914 Sinictitherium Zhongjian, 1937 Galeotherium Wagner, 1840 Species synonymy I. viverrinum: Galeotherium gen. nov. Wagner, 1840 Ictitherium robustum (Nadmann, 1859) Gaudry, 1862 Thalassictis gracilis Hensel, 1862 Thalassictis viverrina (Roth & Wagner, 1852) Hensel, 1862 Ictitherium gaudryi Zdansky, 1924 Ictitherium sinense Zdansky, 1924 Palhyaena? gaudryi Zdansky, 1938 Sinictitherium sinense Kretzoi, 1938 I. tauricum: Protictitherium? tauricum (Borissiak, 1915) Schmidt-Kittler, 1976 Protictitherium crassum Depéret, 1976 I. pannonicum: Palhyaena hungarica Kretzoi, 1938 Ictitherium cf. robustum Nordmann, 1952 Thalassictis aff. hipparionum (Gervais, 1846) Adrover et al., 1986 I. ibericum: Melinae gen. Meladze, 1967

Description

I. viverrinum life restoration

Ictitherium were around 1.2 metres (4 ft) long, and looked more like civets than modern hyenas, possessing a long body with short legs and a possibly short tail. It is speculated that I. viverrinum was an opportunistic feeder,^[3] and that it ate plants as well as medium-small mammals and birds.^[4] Ictitherium was a very successful and abundant genus, with multiple fossils often being found at a single site.^[5]