Crocuta crocuta spelaea

Cave hyenas are extinct species or subspecies of hyena known from Eurasia, which ranged from Western Europe and West Asia to eastern Siberia, East Asia and Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. They are well represented in many caves, primarily dating to the Last Glacial Period. Cave hyenas served as apex predators that preyed on large mammals, and were responsible for the accumulation of hundreds of large Pleistocene mammal bones in areas including horizontal caves, sinkholes, mud pits, and muddy areas along rivers. It was one of the main apex predators of northern Eurasian ecosystems alongside the cave lion, with the two species likely engaging in hostile conflict over carcasses. Much like African spotted hyenas, they likely lived in clans.

Crocuta crocuta spelaea

PierreSelim · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
Crocuta crocutaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocuta
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hyaenidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences774 ka – 129 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Crocuta crocuta spelaea on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Crocuta crocuta spelaea and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Crocuta crocuta spelaea and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

157 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Crocuta crocuta spelaea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Crocuta crocuta spelaea

Credit
PierreSelim
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCrocuta crocuta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Goldfuss 1823)