Pliocrocuta

Pliocrocuta is an extinct genus of hyena.^[1] It contains the species Pliocrocuta perrieri, known from the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Eurasia and possibly Africa. It is possibly ancestral to Pachycrocuta,^[2] with some authors including P. perrieri within Pachycrocuta.^[3] It is largely known from cranial remains.^[4] The species is estimated to have weighed around 56 kilograms (123 lb) on average, with its skull showing evidence for adaptation to bone cracking.^[5] It may have been solitary, unlike living bone cracking spotted hyenas.^[6]

Pliocrocuta Temporal range: Pliocene–Early Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Sarcopterygii
Clade:	Tetrapodomorpha
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Hyaenidae
Genus:	†Pliocrocuta Kretzoi, 1938
Species
Pliocrocuta perrieri

Teeth

P. perrieri first appeared during the Pliocene, around 4.2 million years ago.^[4] In the earliest Pleistocene (2.6-2 million years ago) of Europe, Pliocrocuta lived alongside the fellow hyena Chasmaporthetes, the sabertooth cats Megantereon and Homotherium, the giant cheetah Acinonyx pardinensis, the cougar-relative Puma pardoides, the primitive lynx Lynx issiodorensis, the bear Ursus etruscus, and the wild dog Xenocyon falconeri. Pliocrocuta became extinct in Europe around 2 million years ago as part of a major faunal turnover event where many European animals became extinct and were replaced by immigrants from elsewhere, with Pliocrocuta being replaced by Pachycrocuta in this transition.^[6]