Pachycrocuta is an extinct genus of prehistoric hyenas. The largest and most well-researched species is Pachycrocuta brevirostris, colloquially known as the giant short-faced hyena as it stood about at the shoulder and it is estimated to have averaged in weight, approaching the size of a lioness, making it the largest known hyena. Pachycrocuta first appeared during the late Miocene (Messinian, 7.2 to 5.3 million years ago). By 800,000 years ago, it became locally extinct in Europe and became completely extinct during the middle Pleistocene, 400,000 years ago. Taxonomy The first identified fossil of the short-faced hyena was discovered in Le Puy, Auvergne, France, in 1845 by French paleontologist Auguste Aymard. In 1850, French paleontologist Paul Gervais made it the holotype specimen of a new species, Hyaena brevirostris. But, in 1893, while writing a much more detailed description, French paleontologist Marcellin Boule mistakingly listed Aymard as the species authority instead of Gervais, citing volume 12 of Aymard's Annales de la Société d'Agriculture, Sciences, Arts et Commerce du Puy which does not mention the species at all. Boule further gave the annal's publication date as 1846 instead of the correct 1848. The fallacious authority Aymard, 1846, was reprinted for over a century until Spanish paleontologist David M. Alba and colleagues on behalf of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature convincingly falsified it in 2013. The short-faced hyena was usually relegated to the genus Hyaena alongside the modern striped hyena and brown hyena. In 1938, Hungarian paleontologist Miklós Kretzoi suggested erecting a new genus for it, Pachycrocuta, but this only became popular after Giovanni Ficcarelli and Danilo Torres' review of hyena classification in 1970. They, like many priors, placed Pachycrocuta as ancestral to Crocuta (the modern spotted hyena). Dozens more short-faced hyena remains have been found across Europe. In 1828, Jean-Baptiste Croizet and Antoine Claude Gabriel Jobert created the species "H. perrieri" for a specimen from Montagne de Perrier, France. In 1889, German paleontologist Karl Weithofer described "H. robusta" based on a specimen from Olivola, Tuscany, Italy, but Boule quickly synonymized it with "H." brevirostris in 1893. In 1890, French paleontologist Charles Depéret erected "H. pyrenaica" based on a specimen from Roussillon. Short-faced hyenas were also being discovered in East Asia. In 1870, English naturalist Richard Owen described a Chinese specimen as "H." sinensis. In 1908, French paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois described a Javan one as "H. bathygnatha". In 1934, Chinese paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong