Pachycrocuta

The first identified fossil of the short-faced hyena was discovered in Le Puy, Auvergne, France, in 1845 by French paleontologist Auguste Aymard. In 1850, French paleontologist Paul Gervais made it the holotype specimen of a new species, Hyaena brevirostris. But, in 1893, while writing a much more detailed description, French paleontologist Marcellin Boule mistakenly listed Aymard as the species authority instead of Gervais, citing volume 12 of Aymard's ''Annales de la Société d'Agriculture, Sciences, Arts et Commerce du Puy'' which does not mention the species at all. Boule further gave the annal's publication date as 1846 instead of the correct 1848. The fallacious authority Aymard, 1846, was reprinted for over a century until Spanish paleontologist David M. Alba and colleagues on behalf of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature convincingly disproved it in 2013. The short-faced hyena was usually relegated to the genus Hyaena alongside the modern striped hyena and brown hyena. In 1938, Hungarian paleontologist Miklós Kretzoi suggested erecting a new genus for it, Pachycrocuta, but this only became popular after Giovanni Ficcarelli and Danilo Torres' review of hyena classification in 1970. They, like many priors, placed Pachycrocuta as ancestral to Crocuta (the modern spotted hyena). Dozens more short-faced hyena remains have been found across Europe. In 1828, Jean-Baptiste Croizet and Antoine Claude Gabriel Jobert created the species "H. perrieri" for a specimen from Montagne de Perrier, France. In 1889, German paleontologist Karl Weithofer described "H. robusta" based on a specimen from Olivola, Tuscany, Italy, but Boule quickly synonymized it with "H." brevirostris in 1893. In 1890, French paleontologist Charles Depéret erected "H. pyrenaica" based on a specimen from Roussillon. Short-faced hyenas were also being discovered in East Asia. In 1870, English naturalist Richard Owen described a Chinese specimen as "H." sinensis. In 1908, French paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois described a Javan one as "H. bathygnatha". In 1934, Chinese paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong described another Chinese one, "H." licenti, from the Nihewan Basin. In 1954, mammalogist R. F. Ewer described "P." bellax" from Kromdraai, South Africa. In 1956, Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén identified the subspecies "H. b. neglecta" from Jammu, India (he also chose to classify several other short-faced hyenas as subspecies of brevirostris.) In 1970 Ficcarelli and Torres relegated these to Pachycrocuta, though "P. perrieri" is sometimes split off into a different genus, Pliocrocuta, erected by Kretzoi in 1938. In 2001, P. brevirostris was identified in Gladysvale Cave, South Africa. Usually, no more than one or two Asian short-faced hyenas were considered distinct from the European P. brevirostris. The two species convention was especially popular among Chinese scientists. As the 20th century progressed, they were often classified as regional subspecies of P. brevirostris, with P. b. brevirostris endemic to Europe, and P. b. licenti and P. b. sinensis to China. Conversely, in a 2024 analysis of metric data for teeth, Pérez-Claros argued that the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) was its closest living relative, and along with the extinct Pliocrocuta and "Hyaena" prisca should be included within Pachycrocuta. A later 2025 study continued to regard Pliocrocuta and the brown hyena as separate from Pachycrocuta, and P. brevirostris as the only valid Eurasian species of the genus. == Description ==

Pachycroctua brevirostris was one of the largest hyenas, only Dinocrocuta gigantea (which may be a true hyena or a member of the closely related extinct family Percrocutidae) grew larger. Two adult individuals from Zhoukoudian were estimated to be around at the shoulder respectively, though some European individuals may have been somewhat larger. ==Behaviour and ecology==

It has been suggested that Pachycrocuta lived in packs, similar to living spotted hyenas. Yet another example exists in the Pabbi Hills of Pakistan, where remains of animals scavenged or killed by Pachycrocuta were accumulated. The morphology of its limbs suggests that it was less adapted to running than living spotted hyenas. Species preyed upon and/or scavenged by Pachycrocuta during the Early Pleistocene in Europe include the mammoth species Mammuthus meridionalis, equines (likely including Equus altidens At the site of Cueva Victoria in southeast Spain, evidence for the consumption of monk seals (Monachus), has also been found. == Relationship with humans ==

P. brevirostris likely competed with early representatives of Homo (archaic humans) in Early Pleistocene Europe like Homo antecessor for carrion, with one mammoth carcass from the Fuente Nueva-3 site in Spain showing evidence of having been consumed by both archaic humans and Pachycrocuta. Remains of "Peking Man" (an East Asian form of Homo erectus) in the Zhoukoudian cave site display evidence of having been consumed by Pachycrocuta which includes distinctive fracturing of the skull, likely the result of biting on the facial region likely to expose the brain, as well as bones displaying signs of having been swallowed and subject to erosion by stomach acid. It is unclear whether this consumption indicates predation or scavenging. ==Evolution and extinction==

Evolution The oldest fossils usually considered to belong to the genus are known from the Pliocene of East Africa, During its existence in Europe, Pachycrocuta brevirostris represented the only species of hyena present in the region, and largest carnivore alongside the lion-sized sabertooth Homotherium. However, this has been questioned by recent analysis as there is no evidence of temporal overlap between the two species. Instead, the likely cause of its extinction in Europe was the result of a major faunal turnover event at the Early-Middle Pleistocene (Villafranchian-Galerian) transition in which many European megafauna species became extinct, likely as a result of a more unstable climate as a consequence to changes in the length of glacial cycles. Pachycrocuta became extinct in Europe as part The latest remains from East Asia are from the Zhoukoudian site, dating to around 500,000 years ago, and the species may have persisted later elsewhere in Asia. == See also ==