ExtinctZoo - If This Prehistoric Hyena Was In Lion King Scar Would've Won

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

In Lion King, Scar used an army of Hyenas to try and uh..."remove"...Simba, but as we know, this didn't turn out so great for him, well I am here to tell you that things would have panned out quite different, if he had just hired this prehistoric Hyena instead.

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Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at M365Copilot.com slash work. If you're like me, and watch the Lion King when you were a kid, then hyenas are deeply etched into your mind, likely resting in the area where you keep things that are kind of creepy, scary, and a bit menacing. And in real life, they're arguably even more freaky and fiendish than in the movies. Sometimes, although rarely, even becoming man-eaters. Yet, for all their unnervingness, they are still often portrayed as being the underdogs

compared to other African predators, namely the king, the lion. and we routinely see them getting, for a lack of better terms, beaten up by them, both in movies like the Lion King and in real-life documentaries. And studies do suggest that things in the wild tend to be more in favor of lions, as they typically defend and steal carcasses more successfully from hyenas than vice versa. And in some places, death by a lion is actually the main cause of mortality in certain hyena species. However, once upon a time, things would have been much different, as at one point, hyenas were crazier than they are today.

Hard to imagine, yet they were. And not just a bit crazier, but significantly more, having been both far larger and far deadlier. And of all the extinct hyenas that had come and gone, none were as built or as big as the true king of hyenas, the Dino-Kakuta. With a name like that, which directly translates the terrible hyena, you know this must have been one bad apple, an aspect not lost upon by its discoverers,

who could instantly tell that they had found an animal unlike no other, when they discovered giant bones of a specimen back in the early 1900s, which luckily were well preserved, allowing them to quickly deduce that this new creature had been at least hyena-like, and definitely was a member of the phoform suborder, which today contains animals such as cats, hyenas, mongooses, vivarids, and other related groups. And of all the phyloforms, this specimen most closely resembled a hyena by a large margin, and therefore was placed within the hyena day family,

with the main thought being that its closest living relative was the spotted hyena, but that it was not its direct ancestor, and that it did not leave behind any descendants. After this discovery, more specimens resembling this grisly beast were soon found in various parts of the world. And while they were definitely down our Kokuda, they were a bit different than the holotype, as they varied in size and had different body proportions,

ultimately leading to the creation of four distinct species, the Algeriances, gigantea, Salonike, and Senyureki. But despite their differences, they held the similarity in that they were all giant compared to most hyenas, and were actually the largest ever discovered up until that point, resulting in the Dino-Kakuta being dubbed the king of hyenas. There was just one small problem, though. It might not have actually been a true hyena. Because as the new species were discovered,

paleontologists noted that the teeth were quite unique amongst the four species, and differed from what was seen in normal hyenas, with the main deviating attribute being that the baby teeth were more broad. Thus, it was deemed not to be a real hyena, but rather hyena-like, and was thus placed within the new family, per curokudadei, which was thought to be either a sister taxa of the hyena day

or a totally separate outside group within the philiform suborder. Members of this family were further distinguished by being larger in size and having freakishly large premolars. And now, this is cool and all, but it did mean that Dinococirah lost its title as king of the hyenas. And for many decades, the title the biggest baddest 16th hyena went to another genera, namely the Paki Krakuta, a lioness-sized carnivore that dominated Eurasia during the Pleiocene and Pleistocene. However, like many things, the story did not end here for our terrible hyena friend.

As very recently, a new study which took extremely detailed images of its basic cranium, found that it was much too similar to those seen in hyenas for it to be anything. anything else, meaning that the original classification was right all along, and thus making the Dino Crocutta a competitor for the title of largest hyena once again. But frankly, it's not that much of a competition, as the Dinochukuda, namely the gigantia species, which was the largest of its kind, blows every other hyena straight out of the water when it comes to body size. For now, based on the monstrous nature of its bones, scientists estimate that on average, matured

individuals would have weighed between 200 kilos or 440 pounds and 250 kilos or 551 pounds. Equivalent to around 3 or 4 spotted hyenas mashed altogether. And at the latter weight, it's larger than your typical male lion. And for what it's worth, amateur estimates reckon that Simba would have been around 10% smaller than a diner or crocuda, and thus making a theoretical confrontation between them a disaster for Lion King enthusiasts. It's also worth mentioning that at this size, Dinococuda is by far the largest hyena to have ever lived, outsizing its nearest competition by around 40%.

And original estimates believe that exceptional individuals got even larger than this, with a maximum weight of up to 380 kilograms or 840 pounds, making it more comparable to a very large Siberian tiger than any lion. And now, while it was no doubt a giant, I'm sure there are some Lion King stands out there that may still argue that lions, would have held an edge thanks to their claws. And though it's true that Dino-Cocuda did not have retractable curved claws, instead opting for non-retractable short blunt claws, it did have frequently large forelimbs and hind limbs,

as it was built for immense power, and it's bordered an abnormally thick and sturdy skeleton that also made it highly resistant to impact forces. Additionally, the bones themselves were not the only beefy things, as the shape of the bones also indicated massive attachment points from muscles, suggesting that in life, this was is a hyper-muscular creature that could use its body to manipulate and pin down animals even larger than itself. The nature of the bones, namely the legs, further indicated that despite being exceptionally powerful, it was still agile and was built for high level of stamina, as it had multiple

adaptations for long-distance running, something seen as well in living hyenas, who are known to chase prey over several miles or kilometers. This combination of both strength and endurance made the Dino-Kukuta a highly successful carnivore. But what really put it above others and would have made even a full-grown lion cower, including Scar, was its Titanic skull. There's no arguing that every part of the 16th Tyana was big, but even in relation to its body, its head was abnormally huge, sometimes measuring over one foot or 0.3 meters, and thus constituting over 20% of the total body length, making it not only much larger than the skull of a lion, but also larger than any other living

of heliform skull. To put this into perspective, if we humans have the same-sized skulls, proportionally speaking, that is, we would all look fairly similar to Megamind. Yet, while big heads and humans presumably means bigger brains, in Dino-Kukuda it meant something else, a very extreme bite. Now, hyenas in general are known for having exceptionally formidable bites, with the largest extent species, the spotted hyena, having a bite force of over 4,500 newtons, enough to easily crack a human's bone wide open and already placing them above any big cat. And even still, this is nothing compared to their prehistoric ancestors bite, which while not having

been calculated in any study, is believed to have easily generated enough power to crush the bones of the largest terrestrial animals around, including elephants and rhinos. And when I say crush, I mean literally crush them down to small pieces that were small enough to be eaten and digested. as dino-cociruda is thought to have consumed large amounts of bone as a part of its diet. And now, this vicious power was not just hypothesized because of the sheer size of the skull, but also because of its extensive temporal fasce, which would have housed giant muscles that allowed it to clamp its mouth down with immense force.

And in typical fashion, its teeth further demonstrated a killer bone-crushing bite, as they were gargantuan in nature, being multiple times larger than any living hyena's tooth, and bore exceptionally thick enamel, an adaptation used to chomp out bones while also reducing wear and tear. Of its approximately 30 or so teeth, the molars, premolars, and canines in particular

were quite gnarly and supersized. Even outsizing the teeth seen in other mammals who were designed to crush bones, like the Borofaginé, the largest canids to ever exist. These teeth were surprise to prize, also its primary weapon when taking down prey. Yet, while many carnivorous mammals

used their canines and teeth to kill, the Dino-Kukuta did so in a very horrifying manner, as fossil evidence indicates that it killed by using overwhelming power to essentially pop heads, basically like a gusher. To be exact, paleontologists discovered a fully matured chylotherium, a type of primitive rhino, which had extensive damage to his jaw and upper skull, which perfectly matched the teeth of our friend Dino-Kukuda, and thus showcasing that it took out animals by pulverizing their hard protected heads instead of aiming for soft vulnerable areas like the neck or stomach. You know, like a regular carnivore would do.

However, in the case of this particular chylotherium, it actually lived to tell the tail as the bite marks had fully healed, implying that it survived the attack. But its survival in itself actually led to another unsettling realization, and that was that Dino-Krocutta was more than happy to prey on animals many times larger than itself, which not only include rhinos, but a variety of proboscideans, calicotheirs, and large artiodactyla. And of course, medium and smaller-sized animals were not off the menu either. And given the opportunity, it definitely would have gladly engaged in hunting equids and smaller

artiodactyls that it lived with. The fact that the rhinos injuries had healed also blatantly meant that the diner Krakuta was at least to some degree, a predator, clearing up the long-standing question on if it was a scavenger or not. This debate was perhaps the result of the misconception that living hyenas or cowardly scavenger, who steal carcasses, when in reality, species like the spotted hyena hunt the majority of their food, and actually hunt more than lions do, and have a higher success rate as well. And this also seems to apply to the diner cracuda.

Although, interestingly enough, because of the sheer overpoweredness of its muscular build and behemoth-like skull, being literally built different, certain paleontologists think that it could have displayed high levels of kleptoparasatism, meaning parasitism by theft. In other words, the dino-cricuda would have used its imposing size and blatantly deadly jaws to scare predators off from kills that they had made, and thus proceeding to take it for itself. Such a feeding style would have also benefited from its bone-crushing teeth as that would allow the dynocircura to make use of even the most ravaged carcasses, and access the nutritional bone marrow within.

And here's the scariest part. By its lonesome, a single dino-cricuda would have been able to scare most predators away, including saber-toothed cats and various canids. But there is a chance that this nightmare did not roll alone, instead preferring to Roman packs like its living relatives. In other words, bad news for literally everything. Now, there hasn't been solid direct proof that this giant hyena was social, yet some think it was, based off of the simple fact that certain hyena species today are highly gregarious creatures,

who display a fascinating trend in that the largest species, not the smallest, are the ones who are by far the most social. social, with spotted hyenas being known to live in groups of up to 80 individuals. And just for fun, if we imagine that Dino-Kracuda lived in such-sized groups, then their combined weight would rival that multiple fully grown African elephants. And despite there being no direct evidence for any pack life, there is some indirect data, as in nearly all the areas that Dino Krakuta lived. It appears to have been the most abundant large predator around by a good amount, which meant

that it was either a social creature or that it was simply that effective without competing the competition. And regardless if it was a solo operator or not, something that might have further helped it outperform other predators in its area was its extreme senses, namely its eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell. On its large skull, it seems that a lot of space was dedicated to its nose, ears, and eyes, which also held similar designs as to what's seen in hyenas today. And because we know that hyenas have fantastic capabilities in all three of these areas, it's not a stretch to assume that the diner Crocutta at least at a similar level of ability, which if true meant that it would be able to detect Carillon over 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles away by smell alone, here a predator

killing an animal over 100 football fields away, and seeing with excellent binocular vision. In other words, making it almost an impossible challenge not to be detected by this monstrosity if within one's vicinity. And by vicinity, I mean a very, very large one. And armed with these keen senses, plus its size, the Dino-Kracuda was truly in many ways an unstoppable force, which not only helped it to become the most common large predator in its environments, but also attained an extremely widespread and diverse distribution, with fossils having been located in most of Eurasia and various parts of Africa. Across this range, the Dino-Kakuta ended up living in very different biomes and habitats,

as in Africa it was commonly found in arid grasslands, while in certain areas. parts of Asia, like China, it was known to inhabit woodlands. And then there were also populations that preferred a bit more of an extreme habitat, like in the Tibetan Mountains. And because it could be found in a good chunk of the world, the Diner Krakuta coexisted with a whole host of different animals, unfortunately for them, which included prehistoric rhinoceruses, hedgehogs, pigs, primates, equids, giraffids, proboscids, gazelle, turtles, large, large, large flightless birds, hyotherane, ancient deer, bovids, antelopes, calicotheirs, rodents, crocodilians, and large boas.

It's worth mentioning that while many kinds of these animals could be found, it seems that large herbivores in particular were doing well. Good news for the Dino Crocutta, no doubt. And up until now, at least eight different rhinos and five different giraffids, including a four-horned one, are known to have lived alongside Dinochukukukuta. And just to put into context how many that is, across the entire planet today, there are only two known genera of giraffids and four different rhinoceroses. Another group of animals that were thriving back then were carnivorous mammals, and thus Dainukukukukuda had to compete with multiple different genera, such as the meomychiris, amphiciridus, hyanictotherium, Ictotherium, and the metilurus, among others. Some of these, namely the Sabretooth Amphicirotus, were both quite close to it in size, sometimes

even outgrowing it, and also specialized in the same niche, suggesting frequent clashes. Yet, as previously mentioned, it seems that Dinocociruda held an edge over these competitors, being the most abundant large carnivore in the fossil bed records, with some fossil sites even showing evidence that these Sabretooth cats would avoid land where the Dinocircu was present. such a dominating existence may have been the result of packs, since if it was social, that would negate any potential size advantage, or perhaps it was simply thanks to its one-of-a-kind bite, that as far as we can tell, packed exceptionally more power than any animal around it. And one unfortunate group of creatures that possibly felt this bite on occasion was members

of our very own subfamily. The hominines, as multiple genera are known to have lived in the same countries at the exact same times as the Dino-Kracuda. Specifically, it's likely that Pierre Lepithecus, Danuvius, and possibly Sahelanthropus met this giant hyena. It's unsure how encounters would have exactly played out, but considering that in general, primates and early humans are known to have at least sometimes been preyed to ancient hyenas, it's safe to assume that things did not go too well for our ancestors, especially when considering

just how many killer traits the Dino Krakuta had. And the situation may have been extremely grim, as in certain locations like Morocco, prehistoric hyenas were actually the main killers of early hominides. And unfortunately, the reign of the king of hyenas was a long one, with fossil formations showing that at the very minimum, it existed for a good amount of the myocene, from roughly 11.5 million years ago to somewhere around 7 or so million years ago, after which it went through a sudden decline and became extinct. This rapid downfall has often perplexed paleontologists.

especially since it had been doing so well for such a long time. And thus far, no clear event is known from around it that could clearly explain its disappearance. And what's more is that the majority of its prey would continue to thrive for millions of years. So it's not like there was a short supply of food or anything. Plus, while Big Cats did eventually go on to become the new rulers of many ecosystems, they did not at the time,

meaning it's highly unlikely that Dinocircuda faced extinction through a competitor. For now, the mystery remains. but I for one think our ancestors were probably happy that this monstrosity does. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals

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