Protictitherium

Protictitherium is an extinct genus of hyena that lived across Europe and Asia during the Middle and Late Miocene, it is often considered to be the first hyena since it contains some of the oldest fossils of the family. They were especially prolific in Turkey, where every species has been registered.

Protictitherium

PePeEfe · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
IctitheriinaePBDB
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 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 8.725 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 5.09 Mya.

Miocene — about 22 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.5–9.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.0–8.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.4–7.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.9–7.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.3–6.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.8–6.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.2–5.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.7–5.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.1–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya8.725 Mya20.9 Mya4.6 Mya

22 occurrences of Protictitherium 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

22 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

7 formations

Nea Messimvria — 40.77°N, 22.79°ENea Messimvria — 40.74°N, 22.86°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EChersonian — 47.25°N, 28.69°EDytiko — 40.84°N, 22.56°EDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°EBeyağaç — 37.27°N, 28.97°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Protictitherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protictitherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Protictitherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

518 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Protictitherium, 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

17 references

Each of the 22 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. 5 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 Protictitherium

Credit
PePeEfe
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itIctitheriinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kretzoi 1938