The Fossil Record of Percrocutids (Mammalia: Carnivora: Percrocutidae) in Greece

The family Percrocutidae was erected to include some Miocene and Pliocene hyaena-like carnivoran taxa of Eurasia and Africa, which were included to the Hyaenidae for a long time. The percrocutids were dispersed from Spain to China and in the Eastern Mediterranean region are traced in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. In Greece, Percrocutidae are scarcely known from the middle and late Miocene of northern Greece and Samos Island. It is, however, quite diverse and the three identified certain species (two of them new) belong to the genera Percrocuta, Dinocrocuta, and Belbus. The members of the family are characterized by the absence of the M2/m2 and the enlarged premolars, mainly P3/p3.