Percrocutidae

Percrocutidae Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene
Dinocrocuta gigantea skull cast, Zoological Museum in Copenhagen
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Superfamily:	Herpestoidea
Family:	†Percrocutidae Werdelin & Solounias, 1991
Genera
†Dinocrocuta †Percrocuta

Percrocutidae is an extinct family of hyena-like feliform carnivores endemic to Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe from the Miocene through the Pliocene, existing for about 17.41 million years.

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 the Percrocutidae to be a distinct family - although usually as sister-taxa/immediate outgroup to Hyaenidae. Sometimes it is placed with the family Stenoplesictidae into the superfamily Stenoplesictoidea.

Taxonomy

Classification

Family †Percrocutidae

Family	Image	Genus	Species
†Percrocutidae		†Dinocrocuta (Schmidt-Kittler, 1975)	†D. algeriensis †D. gigantea †D. salonicae †D. senyureki
		†Percrocuta (Kretzoi, 1938)	†P. abessalomi †P. carnifex †P. grandis †P. leakeyi †P. miocenica †P. tobieni †P. tungurensis

The list follows McKenna and Bell's Classification of Mammals for prehistoric genera (1997). In contrast to McKenna and Bell's classification, they are not included as a subfamily into the Hyaenidae but as a separate family Percrocutidae.

References

• Jordi Agustí: Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe, Columbia University Press, 2002. LCCN 2001-42251 ISBN 0-231-11640-3