Crocuta Explained

Crocuta is a genus of hyena containing the largest extant member of the family, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Several fossil species are known as well.

Taxonomy

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 Eurasian "cave hyenas" (Crocuta spelaea, Crocuta ultima and others) have been classified as distinct species, but are nowadays more commonly considered prehistoric subspecies of the spotted hyena.

Two extinct species are known to have coexisted with each other in eastern Africa during the Pliocene; Crocuta eturono and Crocuta dietrichi, each one probably occupying a different niche in regards to their preference for scavenging or hunting.^[2] In Ahl al Oughlam, a Pliocene site in Morocco, lived the species Crocuta dbaa.^[3] In China there was a Pliocene species, Crocuta honanensis,^[4] while another species from the same epoch in India known as Crocuta sivalensis has an unclear status, being regarded as anything from a synonym of the spotted hyena to an ancestor.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Rao . Huiyun . Palaeoproteomic analysis of Pleistocene cave hyenas from east Asia . Scientific Reports . 2020 . 10 . 1 . 16674 . 10.1038/s41598-020-73542-x . 33028848 . 7541484 .
2. Coca-Ortega . Carlos . Pérez-Claros . Juan Antonio . Characterizing ecomorphological patterns in hyenids: a multivariate approach using postcanine dentition . PeerJ . 2019 . 6 . e6238 . 10.7717/peerj.6238 . 30648005 . 6330948 . free .
3. Geraads . Denis . Alemseged . Zeresenay . Bobe . René . Reed . Denné . July 2015 . Pliocene Carnivora (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation at Dikika, Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia . . en . 107 . 28–35 . 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.03.020 . 10 January 2024 . Elsevier Science Direct.
4. Sheng . Gui-Lian . Pleistocene Chinese cave hyenas and the recent Eurasian history of the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta . Molecular Ecology . 2013 . 23 . 3 . 522–533 . 10.1111/mec.12576. 24320717 . 25812110 .
5. Werdelin . Lars . Lewis . Margaret E. . The taxonomic identity of the type specimen of Crocuta sivalensis (Falconer, 1867) . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 2012 . 32 . 6 . 1453–1456 . 10.1080/02724634.2012.694593. 83475651 .