''Proteles'' is a genus of distinctive

hyenas Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the cla ...

which contain the

aardwolf The aardwolf (''Proteles cristata'') is an insectivorous species of hyena, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called maanhaar-jackal (Afrikaans for " mane-jackal"), termite-eat ...

''(Proteles cristatus)'' and its close fossil relatives. It is the only genus of the subfamily Protelinae. While the oldest fossils definitely belonging to ''Proteles'' date back to the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

dating to around 10 million years ago has been suggested to belong to the genus, which would significantly increase its temporal range. It has been suggested that the Protelinae subfamily is actually an offshoot of the "running hyenas" (such as ''

Lycyaena ''Lycyaena'' is an extinct genus of terrestrial carnivore in the family Hyaenidae. ''Lycyaena'' was a cursorial hunting hyaena as opposed to full-time scavenger. It has been suggested by R. F. EwerR. F. Ewer, ''The Carnivores'' (1973) that ''Lyc ...

'') who adapted to an insectivorous diet due to increased competition from canines and felines.

References

Mammal genera Mammal genera with one living species Hyenas Taxa named by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire {{Carnivora-stub