Crocuta
Crocuta is a genus of hyena containing the largest living member of the family, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Several fossil species are known as well.
| Crocuta | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Hyaenidae |
| Subfamily: | Hyaeninae |
| Genus: | Crocuta Kaup, 1828 |
| Type species | |
| Hyaena crocuta Erxleben, 1777 | |
| Species | |
| |
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 scavenging/hunting preference.[2] In China there was a Pliocene species, Crocuta honanensis,[3] while another species from the same period in India known as Crocuta sivalensis has an unclear status, being regarded as anything from a synonym of the spotted hyena to an ancestor.[4]
References
- Rao, Huiyun (2020). "Palaeoproteomic analysis of Pleistocene cave hyenas from east Asia". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 16674. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73542-x. PMC 7541484. PMID 33028848.
- Coca-Ortega, Carlos; Pérez-Claros, Juan Antonio (2019). "Characterizing ecomorphological patterns in hyenids: a multivariate approach using postcanine dentition". PeerJ. 6: e6238. doi:10.7717/peerj.6238. PMC 6330948. PMID 30648005.
- Sheng, Gui-Lian (2013). "Pleistocene Chinese cave hyenas and the recent Eurasian history of the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta". Molecular Ecology. 23 (3): 522–533. doi:10.1111/mec.12576. PMID 24320717. S2CID 25812110.
- Werdelin, Lars; Lewis, Margaret E. (2012). "The taxonomic identity of the type specimen of Crocuta sivalensis (Falconer, 1867)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (6): 1453–1456. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.694593. S2CID 83475651.