Research Reveals Ancient Hyenas in the Arctic

A study by first author Jack Tseng, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences has reported that two fossil teeth found in Canada are the first known fossils of hyenas from the Arctic. They belonged to the “running hyena” Chasmaporthetes. “Our previous understanding of where these far-ranging hyenas lived was based on fossil records in southern North America on one hand, and Asia, Europe and Africa on the other,” Tseng says. “These rare records of hyenas in the Arctic fill in a massive gap in a location where we expected evidence of their crossing between continents but had no proof until now.”