Kingdom Animalia Suborder Feliformia Rank Family | Class Mammalia Phylum Chordata Order Carnivores | |
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Similar Carnivores, Dinocrocuta, Percrocuta, Barbourofelidae, Nimravidae | ||
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 carnivoran genera, such as Stenoplesictis, into the family Stenoplesictidae.
Genera
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.