Lycyaena

Lycyaena is an extinct genus of terrestrial carnivore in the family Hyaenidae. It has been suggested by R. F. Ewer that Lycyaena may be a possible ancestor to today's aardwolf. Lycyaena lived in Eurasia and North Africa during the Late Miocene.

Lycyaena

Ghedoghedo · 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
HyaenidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Hyaenidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hyaenidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 6.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 8.725 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 8 of 9 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 9 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 9 occurrencesPleistocene12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.4–9.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.0–8.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.0–6.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.6–6.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.2–5.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.4–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.2–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–1.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.9–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.1–669 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.725 Mya2.58 Mya12.1 Mya274 ka

9 occurrences of Lycyaena on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

9 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.

Found in

1 formation

Alfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WAlfambra — 40.50°N, 1.02°W

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The named rock units Lycyaena has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lycyaena and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lycyaena and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

221 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Lycyaena, 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

7 references

Each of the 9 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 content1

Picture of Lycyaena

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

No 3D scan of Lycyaena was found in Sketchfab.

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 itHyaenidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hensel 1863