A new Middle Miocene mammalian fauna from Mordoğan (Western Turkey)

Ardiç-Mordo?an is a new fossil Mammal locality in the Karaburun Peninsula of Western Turkey. Among its fauna, which is described here, the carnivores are especially interesting, with the most complete specimens ever found ofPercrocuta miocenica and of a primitive species of hyaenid, of which a new subspecies is described,Protictitherium intermedium paralium. This fauna is strongly reminiscent of those of sever-al other Middle Miocene localities in this area, Çandir, Pa?alar and Inönü in Turkey, and Prebreza in Serbia, and they must all belong to the same mammalian zone. Their ungulates attest an open environment which must have been widespread in the Turko-Balkanic area in Serravallian times.     

Allohyaena (Mammalia: Carnivora): giant hyaenid from the Late Miocene of Hungary

The topotypic material of the giant Late Miocene hyaenid Allohyaena kadici Kretzoi is described. New data on the deciduous dentition shows unambiguously that A. kadici is a hyaenid and not a percrocutid as reported by some previous authors. A. kadici is compared to the large hyaenids Adcrocuta eximia and Crocuta crocuta. These comparisons show that A. kadici has a mixture of primitive characters such as dp4 morphology, retention of m2, long and slender premolars and a large protocone on P4, and derived characters such as a preparastyle on P4, an internal root on P3 and a uniquely derived talonid structure of ml. This combination of features makes A. kadici difficult to classify, but it is considered to probably be most closely related to derived, bone-cracking hyaenids such as Pachycrocuta and Crocuta. A. kadici is rare in the fossil record, being found at only two sites. We suggest that the reason for this rarity is that it had a geographic and stratigraphic range which is poorly sampled in the Miocene fossil record of Europe.     

A large Percrocutid Carnivore from the Late Miocene (ca. 10–9 Ma) of Nakali, Kenya

The presence of a large hyaenoid (Hiperhyaena sic leakeyi) from the Late Miocene (Vallesian equivalent) deposits at Nakali, Kenya, was first recorded in 1974, but the fossil on which the announcement was based was not described or figured, nor was a type specimen or type species nominated. The generic and specific names are thus nomina nuda. Howell and Petter (1985) described Hyperhyaena leakeyi, and credited the generic and specific names alternatively to Aguirre and Leakey (1974) and Aguirre and Crusafont in 1974 (the latter paper was never published). Howell and Petter are in fact the authors of both the generic and the specific names. Later in the same paper, Howell and Petter (1985) rejected the name Hyperhyaena and classified the species leakeyi in Allohyaena (Dinocrocuta). The purpose of this paper is to provide more information about the fossil and to discuss its relationships to other percrocutids. It is concluded that it belongs to the genus Percrocuta Kretzoi, 1938, being morphologically similar to the type species Percrocuta carnifex (Pilgrim, 1913) from the Siwaliks of Pakistan.