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| The scientists used morphometric and morphological analysis of teeth. Photo Credit: Daniyar Khantemirov |
Ural scientists with colleagues from China and Azerbaijan have established that "terrible" hyenas (Dinocrocuta gigantea) lived in the territory of the modern Caucasus 10-9 million years ago. This fact was confirmed by studying jaw fragments that were found in the Upper Miocene site of Eldari, Azerbaijan. The researchers published a description and photographs of the fragments in the journal Palaeoworld.
"In our work, the Dinocrocute hyenas from the Caucasus are described for the first time. Other finds of this species are described from Southern Europe or Northern China. In other words, our finding fills a gap in understanding the distribution of dinocrocutes, which were one of the key predators in the faunas of the Miocene, a geological epoch from 23 to 5 million years before our time," explains Daniyar Khantemirov, co-author of the work, laboratory researcher at the UrFU Laboratory of Natural Science Methods in Humanitarian Research.
The "terrible" hyenas (Dinocrocuta gigantea) inhabited most of Eurasia. According to some estimates, these animals were the largest and strongest predators of the continent: adults could reach a weight of 400 kg (the weight of a modern Amur tiger is up to 320 kg, and a medium-sized polar bear is 450 kg).
Scientists still know very little about the life and behavior of "terrible" hyenas: it is possible that they fed on extinct large herbivores of the hipparion fauna – hornless "rhinoceroses" (Chilotherium), as well as "horses" hipparions (Hipparion), deer-like and giraffe-like species (Helladotherium and Paleotragus), "pigs" (Microstonyx major) and the most ancient Tragocerus antelopes known to modern science.
Previously, scientists assumed that the Caucasus was located on one of the possible migration routes of large mammals in the Late Miocene, but there was no direct evidence of the habitat of dinocrocutes on its territory.
Notably, the redescribed jaws of fossil hyenas were discovered in the northwestern part of Azerbaijan near the Eller-Oyug mountains. In the future, experts plan to conduct a morphological analysis of the remains of representatives of the hyena family from the territory of Russia: giant short-faced hyenas from the Tavrida Cave in Crimea and cave hyenas from the Urals and Siberia.
Title: Dinocrocuta gigantea from the Upper Miocene site of Eldari, Azerbaijan
Authors: Daniyar R. Khantemirov, Dmitriy O. Gimranov, Qi-Gao Jiangzuo, and Tariel M. Eybatov
Source/Credit: Ural Federal University | Delfina Zakharova
Reference Number: pal102025_01