''Chasmaporthetes'', also known as hunting or running hyena, is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

hyena Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the sma ...

s distributed in

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epochs, living from 4.9 million to 780,000 years ago, existing for about . The genus probably arose from Eurasian

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

hyenas such as '' Thalassictis'' or '' Lycyaena'', with ''C. borissiaki'' being the oldest known representative.Kurtén, Björn (1980) ''Pleistocene mammals of North America'', p. 199, Columbia University Press, 1980, The species ''C. ossifragus'' was the only hyena to cross the

Bering land bridge Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72° north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the ...

into the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, and ranged over what is now

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

during

Blancan The Blancan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 4,750,000 to 1,806,000 years BP, a period of .Irvingtonian The Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), spanning from 1.8 million – 250,000 years Before Present, BP.

Land Mammal ages, between 5.0 and 1.5 million years ago.Macdonald, David (1992) ''The Velvet Claw: A Natural History of the Carnivores'', p. 119-144, New York: Parkwest, ''Chasmaporthetes'' was one of the so-called "dog-like" hyenas (of which the aardwolf is the only survivor), a hyaenid group which, in contrast to the now more common "bone-crushing" hyenas, evolved into slender-limbed, cursorial hunters like modern canids.

Taxonomy and etymology

''Chasmaporthetes'' was named (from chasm and the Greek (), "destroyer, ravager") by Hay (1921), who noted that the name meant that the North American species, ''Chasmaporthetes ossifragus'' (the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

) possibly saw the beginning of the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

Species

At least nine species are currently recognised: *''Chasmaporthetes ossifragus''

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

, 1921 - North America,

*''C. australis'' Hendey, 1974 - Africa, Late

*''C. bonisi'' Koufos, 1987 - Greece, Late Miocene *''C. borissiaki'' Khomenko, 1932 - Russia, Pliocene (disputed) *''C. exitelus'' Kurtén & Werdelin, 1988 - China, Late Miocene *''C. gangsriensis'' Tseng, Li, & Wang, 2013 - Asia, Early Pliocene *''C. lunensis'' Del Campana, 1914 - Eurasia, Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene *''C. melei'' Rook ''et al'', 2004 -

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, Early Pleistocene *''C. nitidula'' Geraads, 1997 - Africa, Pliocene to Early Pleistocene

Anatomy and paleoecology

The limb bones of ''Chasmaporthetes'' were long and slender like those of cheetahs, and its cheek teeth were slender and sharp-edged like those of a cat. ''Chasmaporthetes'' likely inhabited open ground and was a daytime hunter. A study on the genus'

premolar The premolars, also called premolar Tooth (human), teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the Canine tooth, canine and Molar (tooth), molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per dental terminology#Quadrant, quadrant in ...

intercuspid notches indicated ''Chasmaporthetes'' was likely

hypercarnivorous A hypercarnivore is an animal that 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 example ...

rather than

durophagous Durophagy is the eating behavior of animals that consume hard-shelled or exoskeleton-bearing organisms, such as corals, shelled mollusks, or crabs. It is mostly used to describe fish, but is also used when describing reptiles, including fossil t ...

as its modern cousins (excluding the aardwolf) are.

Dental microwear Dental microwear analysis is a method to infer diet and behavior in extinct animals, especially in fossil specimens. It has been used on a variety of taxa, including hominids, victoriapithecids, amphicyonids, canids, ursids, hyaenids, hyaenodont ...

of ''C. australis'' from Langebaanweg in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

shows that the species was hypercarnivorous and rarely engaged in durophagy; its dental microwear was similar to the modern

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

, which seldom consumes bone. In Europe, the species ''C. lunensis'' competed with the giant cheetah '' Acinonyx pardinensis'', and may have preyed on the small Bourbon gazelle (''Gazella borbonica'') and the chamois antelope ('' Procamptoceras brivatense'').Kurtén, Björn (1968) ''Pleistocene mammals of Europe'', p. 68-69, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968 The North American ''C. ossifragus'' was similar in build to ''C. lunensis'', but had slightly more robust jaws and teeth. It may have preyed on the giant marmot '' Paenemarmota'', and competed with the far more numerous '' Borophagus diversidens''.Wang, Xiaoming & Tedford, Richard H. (2008) ''Dogs: their fossil relatives and evolutionary history'' Columbia University Press,

References

External links

Anton, M., Turner, A., Salesa, M. J., Morales, J. ''A complete skull of Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) from the Spanish Pliocene site of La Puebla de Valverde (Teruel)'' Estudios Geol., Vol. 62, n.º 1, 375-388, enero-diciembre 2006
{{Taxonbar, from=Q137581 Prehistoric hyenas Pliocene carnivorans Pleistocene carnivorans Pleistocene genus extinctions Prehistoric carnivoran genera Fossil taxa described in 1921 Ringold Formation Miocene Fauna