Hyainailouros

Hyainailouros ("hyena-cat") is an extinct paraphyletic genus of hyaenodont belonging to the family Hyainailouridae that lived during the Early to Middle Miocene from 22 to 15 million years ago. This genus comprises at least three species spread across Afro-Eurasia. Currently, there’s a debate whether or not Megistotherium was synonymous to Hyainailouros or a separate genus entirely. The genus currently consists of at least 3 species, H. bugtiensis, H. sulzeri, and H. napakensis. H. sulzeri was the type species of and the largest species within the genus, weighing 500 kg (1,100 lb). On the other hand, H. napakensis was believed to have been the smallest weighing 202–271 kg (445–597 lb), the three species were some of the largest known hyaenodonts.

Hyainailouros

W. G. A. Biedermann · Public Domain · 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
HyainailourinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 15 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 15 occurrencesMiocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.6–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.04 Mya13.82 Mya27.8 Mya6.7 Mya

15 occurrences of Hyainailouros 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

15 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

6 formations

Manchar — 26.33°N, 67.83°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EMoghara — 30.38°N, 28.82°EBakate — 4.27°N, 36.60°EErageleit — 3.36°N, 35.80°EVihowa — 30.08°N, 70.33°E

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The named rock units Hyainailouros 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.

Hyainailouros and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hyainailouros and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

341 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Hyainailouros, 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

11 references

Each of the 15 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 Hyainailouros

Credit
W. G. A. Biedermann
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hyainailouros 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 itHyainailourinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stehlin 1907