evidence for adaptation to bone cracking. It may have been solitary, unlike living bone cracking spotted hyenas.

P. perrieri first appeared during the Pliocene, around 4.2 million years ago. In the earliest Pleistocene (2.6-2 million years ago) of Europe, Pliocrocuta lived alongside the fellow hyena Chasmaporthetes, the sabertooth cats Megantereon and Homotherium,