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Pachycrocuta is an extinct genus of prehistoric hyenas.The largest and most well-researched species is Pachycrocuta brevirostris, colloquially known as the giant short-faced hyena as it stood about 90–100 cm (35–39 in) at the shoulder [1] and it is estimated to have averaged 110 kg (240 lb) in weight, [2] approaching the size of a lioness, making it the largest known hyena.
Illustration of cave hyenas consuming a cave bear carcass. While "cave hyenas" did use caves, they were not confined to them, [8] being present where caves were absent, and where present only using caves intermittently, [9] with some examples of open-air dens having being found in the fossil record, such as at Bottrop in Germany.
It is still unclear whether the genus evolved in Africa or Asia, although the oldest known fossils are from Africa and dated to about 3.8 mya. [1] The earliest remains from Asia currently attributed to the genus is Crocuta honanensis from the Early Pleistocene of China dating to around 2.5-2.2 million years ago, but its relationship to the living spotted hyena is ambiguous.
Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site (周口店北京人遗址), also romanized as Choukoutien, is a cave system in suburban Fangshan District, Beijing.It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus (Homo erectus pekinensis), dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the giant short-faced hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris.
Hyenas are known to have preyed on humans in prehistory: human hair has been found in fossilized hyena dung dating back 195,000 to 257,000 years. [70] Some paleontologists believe that competition and predation by cave hyenas (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) in Siberia was a significant factor in delaying human colonization of Alaska. Hyenas may have ...
Kirkdale Cave is a cave and fossil site located in Kirkdale near Kirkbymoorside in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England.It was discovered by workmen in 1821, and found to contain fossilized bones of a variety of mammals from the Eemian interglacial (globally known as the Last Interglacial, ~130-115,000 years ago), when temperatures were comparable to contemporary times, including ...
The most famous Australopithecus fossil is the one nicknamed Lucy, which was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and is about 3.2 million years old. Lucy, likely female, stood about one meter (3.5 feet ...
Dinocrocuta gigantea was originally erected as the species Hyaena gigantea by Schlosser in 1903 [3] based on fragmentary remains found in drug stores in China, [4] and subsequently was referred to under a number of different subgenus and genus names. In 1959, the species Hyaena algeriensis was erected by Camille Arambourg from remains found in ...