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Giant Short-Faced Hyena
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Reconstruction of Pachycrocuta hunting.
Scientific classification
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Genus: †Pachycrocuta Kretzoi
Species: †Pachycrocuta brevirostris

†Pachycrocuta robusta †Pachycrocuta pyrenaica †Pachycrocuta sinensis

Pachycrocuta was a genus of prehistoric hyenas. The largest and most well-researched species is Pachycrocuta brevirostris, colloquially known as the giant short-faced hyena as it stood about 90–100 cm (35–39 in) at the shoulder and it is estimated to have averaged 110 kg (240 lb) in weight, approaching the size of a lioness, making it the largest known hyena. Pachycrocuta first appeared during the late Miocene (Messinian, 7.2 to 5.3 million years ago) and became extinct during the middle Pleistocene, 400,000 years ago.

Fossils[]

The oldest specimens of Pachycrocuta were found in the late Miocene of Baringo County (Kenya). Fossil remains have been found broadly in Eurasia and southern and eastern Africa. Most material consists of fragmented remains, usually of the skull, but a cache of very comprehensive bone material was unearthed at the famous Zhoukoudian site, which probably represents the remains of animals using these caves as lairs for many millennia. At the western end of their former range, at Venta Micena in southeastern Spain, a huge assemblage of Pleistocene fossils also represents a den.

Other proposed species, P. robusta and P. pyrenaica, are less well researched; the former may simply be an exceptionally large European paleosubspecies of the brown hyena, Hyaena brunnea. Sometimes included in this genus (as Pachycrocuta bellax) is the extinct giant striped hyaena, Hyaena bellax.

Behaviour[]

Similar to the modern day striped hyena, it was probably primarily a kleptoparasitic scavenger of the kills of other predators, such as sabertooth cats. Pachycrocuta scavenged for food, probably preferentially so, because it was a heavyset animal not built for chasing prey over long distances. In this respect it would have differed from the spotted hyena of today, which is a more nimble animal that, contrary to its image as a scavenger, usually kills its own food, but often gets displaced by lions. Apparently it was ecologically close enough to its smaller (but still large) relative Pliocrocuta perrieri that they are never found as contemporary fossils in the same region. Research by anthropologists Noel Boaz and Russell Ciochon on remains of Homo erectus unearthed alongside Pachycrocuta at the Zhoukoudian site attributed scoring and puncture patterns observed on hominin long bones and skulls—originally thought to be signs of cannibalism—to predation by Pachycrocuta.

It has been proposed that Pachycrocuta was outcompeted and driven to extinction by the spotted hyena, which was formerly present in Eurasia as well as Africa. Other predators, such as lions, cave lions, tigers and wolves, could have put pressure on it.

Cryptid[]

The Malawi terror beast was a cryptid hyena reported from Malawi's Dowa District in 2003, which killed at least three people and severely injured sixteen others. It may have been the same species as a similar animal shot the previous year, which had killed five people and maimed more than twenty others. Although both animals were officially identified as spotted hyenas, witnesses disagreed, claiming it was giant hyena with way more fur, longer legs and tail compared to spotted hyena.

Sightings[]

2002[]

In August 2002, a "mystery beast" in the Dowa District killed five people and maimed more than twenty others before being shot to death by game rangers and paramilitary police. It resembled a spotted hyena, but had longer hind legs and was bigger in size.

2003[]

Another, identical animal began killing in the Dowa District in 2003. It killed at least three people, two old women and a three-year-old baby - crushing their skulls and eating their intestines and genitals - and severely maimed sixteen others. Some of the survivors lost both legs and hands, two lost both ears and eyes, and one woman lost her mouth and nose. One survivor, Morgan Amoni, believed that the animal was the giant beast that was killed in 2002, resurrected to exact its revenge.

The attacks caused general panic in the region, and at least 4,000 people fled their villages to seek refuge in the district headquarters. By 10 March, these people had returned to their villages with armed security guards as protection,but this second, more famous giant terror beast was never killed.

Gallery[]


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