Malaga University researchers discover the bones of prehistoric giant hyenas in Granada

Researchers from the University of Malaga (UMA) have discovered the largest den recorded in Europe that was home to a species of giant hyenas in Venta Micena, Orce, near the Guadix-Baza basin in Granada.

UMA professor, Paul Palmqvist said, the site “preserves the greatest diversity and in the best state of conservation the remains of the large mammals living in the region more than a one and half million years ago. It is like seeing the Olduvai Gorge in Southern Europe, because in reality the landscape is the same.”

Palmqvist, a palaeontologist, has been studying the site with Bienvenido Martínez for more than 30 years.

Their latest find is a den belonging to giant hyenas (Pachycrocuta brevirostris) surrounded by debris from their hunting sprees.

“A giant hyena was the size of a lioness weighing more than 120 kilograms. It specialised in feeding on what it captured and with a brutal fracturing capacity, dismembered and transported the corpses to their dens,” said Palmqvist.

“There was fauna with many species of African origin, perfectly comparable to what we found in Kenya, large mammals. Today the Venta Micena region is like a desert, but one million and a half years ago the climate was much more humid because there was a large lake and in the vicinity the hyenas formed their dens. When the water level rose, the area was covered. That is why the remains of these large mammals are preserved to this day," he added.