Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 39(1) 1996

Issue:

VOL 39(1) 1996

Keywords:

Taxonomy, systematics, Mammalia, Carnivora, Hyaenidae

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Auditory bulla structure and relationships of the family Hyaenidae

• Yuriy A. SEMENOV

Abstract:

Study of the structure of the auditory bulla in living and fossil hyaenids makes it possible to suggest that the double-chambered bulla of the Hyaenidae evolved from the archaic basicranium of stenoplesictine aeluroids separately from other Feliformia. The anterior chamber has a structure similar to that in Caniformia, and hyaenids then evolve a posterior chamber that is not homologous with the entotympanic chamber of other Feliformia. Whereas in the latter an intrabullar septum is formed mainly or solely by the ectotympanic, in Hyaenidae it is formed solely by the caudal entotympanic and the posterior chamber of the hyaenid bulla can be termed “pseudoentotympanic”. The presence of the caudal entotympanic in the anterior part of the bulla and the absence of the ectotympanic in the intrabullar septum show that the family Hyaenidae is more closely related to the Nimravidae than to the living families of Feliformia.