| Pliocrocuta Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skull | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Hyaenidae |
| Genus: | † Pliocrocuta Kretzoi, 1938 |
| Species | |
| |
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]
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]
