HYAENAS
Richard Lydekker 1849 1915 English naturalist, geologist writer book London Geological Survey India vertebrate paleontology northern India Kashmir fossil mammals reptiles bird Natural History Museum Manual Palaeontology Henry Alleyne Nicholson Wild Animals of Burma Malay Tibetr biogeography biogeographical boundary Indonesia Lydekker's Line Wallacea Australia-New Guinea Royal Natural History London Frederick Warne & co 1893-94 six volume Hyaenidae is a mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family, native to both African and Asian continents consists of four living species, the Striped Hyena and Brown Hyena (genus Hyaena), the Spotted Hyena (genus Crocuta) and the Aardwolf (genus Proteles).originated 26 million years ago from arboreal ancestors bearing similarities to the modern Banded Palm Civet. Plioviverrops, one of the earliest hyenas, was a lithe civet-like creature that inhabited Eurasia 20-22 million years ago. Details from the middle ear and dental structure marked it as a primitive hyena. This genus proved successful, its descendants flourishing with more pointed jowls and racier legs, much as the Canidae had done in North America. Fifteen million years ago, dog-like hyenas flourished, with 30 different species being identified. Unlike some of their modern descendants, these hyenas were not specialized bone-crushers, but were more nimble, wolf-like animals. The dog-like hyenas had canid-like molars, allowing them to supplement their carnivorous diet with vegetation and invertebrates. Five to seven million years ago, the dog-like hyenas were outcompeted by canids traveling from North America to Eurasia via the Bering land bridge. The ancestral aardwolves survived by having adapted themselves to an insectivorous diet to which few canids had specialized. Some hyenas evolved bone crushing teeth which allowed them to avoid competition with the canids, resulting in the hyenas eventually outcompeting a family of similarly built bone crushers
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