extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
, belonging to the order
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek to tear, rend; and , gen.
, '
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once con ...
. It lived during the Late
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
, and its fossilized remains were discovered in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
Description
This genus is mainly known from cranial materials, and was related to the genus ''
Borhyaena
''Borhyaena'' is an extinct genus of South American metatherian, living between 17.5 and 15.5 million years ago in Patagonia, Argentina ( Santa Cruz and Sarmiento Formations) and Chile ( Río Frias Formation).Florentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially ...
as ''Borhyaena antiqua''. These teeth were later attributed to the genus ''
Pharsophorus
''Pharsophorus'' is an extinct genus of borhyaenoid sparassodont that inhabited South America during the Middle to Late Oligocene epoch.
''. In 2014, the discovery of a complete skull allowed its identification as a new genus, ''Australohyaena''.
''Australohyaena'' is a member of the order
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek to tear, rend; and , gen.
, '
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once con ...
, a group of South American mammals similar to marsupials, whose appearance vaguely resembled
placental
Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupial
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsup ...
carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
s from the rest of the world.
Palebiology
Some characteristics of ''Australohyaena'', such as its short muzzle, its large canines, its deep mandibles and its reduced protocone and talonid, indicates that it was an
hypercarnivore
A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant examp ...
; the pronounced temporal fossa and the well developed cranial vault indicates that it was able to break bones thanks to its strong teeth, perhaps in a similar behaviour than modern hyaenas.