Hyena and relatives

[brotherbear]

http://www.livescience.com/19316-cave-hy...-poop.html 
 
By reading the genes in ancient poop, researchers have uncovered the diet and descendents of the cave hyena, which roamed throughout Eurasia alongside the Neanderthals.
The cave hyena, named Crocuta crocuta spelaea, lived for about 1 million years in Eurasia, before dying out some 10,000 to 30,000 years ago. Not only were they about 25 percent larger than modern hyenas, they were also more powerful and had a stronger bite, study researcher Jean-Marc Elalouf, of the Instituteof Biology and Technology Saclay, in France, told LiveScience.
The new data suggest that these prehistoric predators were probably a subspecies of the modern spotted hyena and liked to dine on red deer. Reply