Cave hyena

Cave Hyena Temporal range: Middle to Late Pleistocene
Crocuta crocuta spelaea skeleton from the Muséum de Toulouse
Conservation status
Prehistoric
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Hyaenidae
Genus:	Crocuta
Species:	C. crocuta
Subspecies:	†C. c. spelaea

The Cave Hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) is an extinct subspecies of spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) native to Eurasia, ranging from Northern China to Spain and into the British Isles. Though originally described as a separate species from the spotted hyena due to large differences in fore and hind extremities, genetic analysis indicates no sizeable differences in DNA between Pleistocene cave hyena and modern day spotted hyena populations.^[1][2] It is known from a range of fossils and prehistoric cave art. With the decline of grasslands 12,500 years ago, Europe experienced a massive loss of lowland habitats favoured by cave hyenas, and a corresponding increase in mixed woodlands. Cave hyenas, under these circumstances, would have been outcompeted by wolves and humans which were as much at home in forests as in open lands, and in highlands as in lowlands. Cave hyena populations began to shrink after roughly 20,000 years ago, completely disappearing from Western Europe between 14-11,000 years ago, and earlier in some areas.^[3]

Description

Skull of Crocuta crocuta spelaea

The main distinction between the spotted hyena and the cave hyena is grounded on different lengths of the hind and fore limb bones. The humerus and femur are longer in the cave hyena, indicating an adaptation to a different habitat to that of the spotted hyena. It is unknown if they showed the same sexual dimorphism of the spotted hyena.^[1] It has been estimated that they weighed 102 kg (225 lbs).^[4]

Little is known of their social habits. It is widely accepted that they used caves as dens, although sites in the open-air are also known.^[5] There is no indication of cave hyenas living in large clans or on a more solitary basis, though large clans are not considered likely in their Pleistocene habitat.^[1]

Dietary habits

Reconstruction of cave hyena

Like modern hyenas, cave hyenas accumulated the bones and horns of their food at den sites for later consumption or for play, though it is unknown if the discovered remains were from scavenged or killed animals. Studies of animal remains in hyena den sites in the Bohemian Karst show that Przewalski's Horses were apparently their most common prey, which amounted to 16-51% of the cave hyena's prey. Their largest prey was the woolly rhinoceros, the bones and skulls of which have been found in many hyena den sites. In some regions, rhino remains can comprise 25-30% of the total prey bone material in den sites. Reindeer were another important food source, as they made up 7-15% of the cave hyena's prey. The Steppe Wisent made up only 1-6% of the cave hyena's prey. Red deer only comprised 3% of found remains, with Irish elk being even rarer. The remains of alpine fauna including chamois and ibex are absent in some places, representing less than 3% of the prey, possibly due to their greater fragility.^[5] There is evidence that cave hyenas occasionally practiced cannibalism.^[5]

Interspecific predatory relationships

Cave hyenas were highly successful predators, and were especially numerous in Northeast Asia, where it seems they outcompeted most other predators. This was deduced from the relative scarcity of cave lion, cave bear and wolf remains in areas where they are sympatric with hyenas.^[6]

Cave hyenas are thought to be responsible for the dis-articulation and destruction of some cave bear skeletons. Such large carcasses were an optimal food resource for the hyenas, especially at the end of the winter, when food was scarce.^[5]

Cave hyenas were sympatric with gray wolves in Italy. Unlike the hyenas, which preferentially preyed on lowland animals such as horses, wolves relied more on smaller, slope-dwelling prey such as ibex and roe deer, thus minimizing competition. Wolves and cave hyenas seem to display negative abundance relations over time, with wolf populations expanding their ranges as hyenas disappeared. ^[3]

Interactions with hominids

Cave hyena painting found in the Chauvet Cave in 1994.

Kills partially processed by Neanderthal and then by cave hyena indicate that hyena would occasionally steal Neanderthal kills, and cave hyena and Neanderthal both competed for cave sites. Many caves show alternating occupations of hyenas and Neanderthals.^[7] Numerous hominid bones, including Neanderthal, have also been found partially consumed by cave hyena. Modern humans also lived alongside cave hyena, and may have had similar interaction with them. Some paleontologists believe that competition and predation by cave hyenas in Siberia was a significant factor in delaying human colonization of Alaska. Cave hyenas may have occasionally stolen human kills, or entered campsites to drag off the young and weak, much like modern spotted hyenas in Africa. The oldest Alaskan human remains coincide with roughly the same time cave hyenas became extinct, leading certain paleontologists to infer that hyena predation was what prevented humans from crossing the Bering strait earlier.^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Comparison of Crocuta crocuta crocuta and Crocuta crocuta spelaea through computertomography". Dockner, Martin. Department of Paleontology, University of Vienna. http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kfq/hyaenas/thesis.pdf. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
2. ^ Rohland, N., J. L. Pollack, D. Nagel, C. Beauval, J. Airvaux, S. Paabo, and M. Hofreiter. 2005. The Population History of Extant and Extinct Hyenas. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22:2435-2443.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Comparative ecology and taphonomy of spotted hyenas, humans, and wolves in Pleistocene Italy". C. Stiner, Mary. Revue de Paléobiologie, Genève. http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mstiner/pdf/Stiner2004a.pdf. Retrieved 2008-09-16. 
4. ^ Plio-Pleistocene large carnivores from the Italian peninsula: functional morphology and macroecology by Carlo Meloro, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze della Terra Geologia del Sedimentario “XX Ciclo”, 2007
5. ^ ^{a b c d} "Prey deposits and den sites of the Upper Pleistocene hyena Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823)in horizontal and vertical caves of the Bohemian Karst". CAJUSG. DIEDRICH & KARELŽÁK. http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/art2006.04.237. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Hyenas and Humans in Ice Age Siberia". Christy G. Turner II. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University. http://www.asu.edu/provost/emerituscollege/EVoice1/Articles%20section/n1%20Turner%206x9.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-02. 
7. ^ Fosse, P. 1999. "Cave occupation during Palaeolithic times: Man and/or Hyena?," in The Role of Early Humans in the accumulation if European Lower and Middle Palaeolithic bone assemblages, Ergebnisse eines Kolloquiums, vol. 42, Monographien. Edited by S. Gaudzinski and E. Turner, pp. 73-88. Bonn: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums.

External links

• Article on the possible role cave hyenas played in preventing humans from colonizing North America
• Genuine European Cave Hyena Skull from West Europe
• Genuine European Cave Hyena Skull from East Europe