Chasmaporthetes

Chasmaporthetes, also known as hunting or running hyena, is an extinct genus of hyenas distributed in Eurasia, North America, and Africa during the Pliocene-Pleistocene epochs, living from 4.9 million to 780,000 years ago, existing for about 4.12 million years.

Chasmaporthetes

STW932 · CC0 · 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 4.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.09 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 8.725 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 58 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 26 of 58 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 29 of 58 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 58 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.3–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–7.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.2–5.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.8–5.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.5–5.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.0–3.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.7–3.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–2.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.5–2.2 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.2–1.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.5–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–922 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences922 ka–615 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences615 ka–308 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences308 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.09 Mya774 ka9.2 Mya0 Mya

58 occurrences of Chasmaporthetes 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

58 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

17 formations

Swartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°EZanda — 31.77°N, 79.52°EZanda — 31.60°N, 79.75°EZanda — 31.48°N, 79.80°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ESt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.10°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WGoleta — 19.70°N, 101.12°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WSagantole — 10.50°N, 40.58°EC1/LR — 33.58°N, 7.65°WKuruksai suite — 38.31°N, 69.67°EKairubak suite — 38.60°N, 69.11°EHewangjia — 35.76°N, 103.09°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EDytiko — 40.88°N, 22.55°E

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The named rock units Chasmaporthetes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chasmaporthetes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Chasmaporthetes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

908 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Chasmaporthetes, 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

36 references

Each of the 58 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. 24 further references are not listed. 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 Chasmaporthetes

Credit
STW932
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chasmaporthetes 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 PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hay 1921