Hyenas clearly call dogs and look like dogs. Why are they not canines?
Hyenas are often mistaken for canines because of their appearance, but in fact, hyenas are not canines, on the contrary, they are not as close to cats as canines.
In fact, the call of hyenas is far different from that of canines, because hyenas are different from any animals, and they usually make sounds similar to human laughter.
So why do hyenas look like canids instead of canids? Let's talk about this problem.
Let's see why hyenas look like canids first? First of all, let's briefly understand that hyenas and hyenas are animals of Carnivora Hyenaceae. Under Hyenaceae, there are two subfamilies: Hyenaceae and Hyenaceae. There are three kinds of animals under Hyenaceae: spotted hyenas, striped hyenas and brown hyenas, while there is only one kind of animal under Hyenaceae - hyenaceae - hyenas.
Among the four hyenas, hyenas are the smallest and weakest. Their average adult body length is only about 70cm and their average weight is about 10kg. The most important thing is that the teeth of hyenas are highly degraded and they can only feed on insects (especially termites).
The other three hyenas are ferocious social carnivores, and their names also show their respective characteristics. The striped hyenas have obvious black stripes, the brown hyenas do not have any mottled colors, and they are mainly brown hairs, while the spotted hyenas are covered with black spots.
In African wildlife documentaries, spotted hyenas are the most common. They rob the prey of lonely lions and leopards, eat carrion, and are called "Africa's second brother".
From the pictures of the four hyenas above, we can see that the animals under the hyenaceae are indeed somewhat similar to the canids in appearance, especially in morphology and tail.
Since we say that the Hyenaceae is far from the Canidae, why are they so similar? The problem lies in convergence and evolution.
Convergent evolution refers to the phenomenon that two organisms that do not have close relationship are in the same niche for a long time, and they have evolved homologous organs because of their survival needs.
For example, bats and birds also have wings, but bats are mammals and birds are birds. They are not homologous. For another example, whales are mammals and fish are members of Pisces. But they also have similar appearance and organs, which is the manifestation of convergence evolution.
The similar appearance of Hyenaceae and Canidae is actually the result of convergence evolution.
So why are hyenaceae and canidae animals of the same niche? Niche is the general term of the environment and living habits of a species.
Although Hyenaceae is far from Canidae, their niches are almost the same.
Let's talk about the similarities between the living environment and habits. To be more intuitive, let's compare spotted hyenas and wolves.
The first is the living environment.
Although hyenas and wolves live in the tropics and temperate and sub frigid regions, they both like to live in open areas. In their respective habitats, although both are animals at the top of the food chain, hyenas have the suppression of lions, while wolves have the suppression of tigers, bears and other animals, and both are secondary animals at the top of the food chain.
The second is habit.
Both hyenas and wolves are carnivores and social animals. They have complex social structures, but the leader of the hyena group is a female, while the leader of the wolf group is an adult wolf couple.
In addition, wolves and hyenas hunt mainly by means of war of attrition, so the endurance of these two animals is relatively strong, and once there is a chance, both animals have the habit of seizing prey of other carnivores.
Therefore, it is the similar habits and living environment (niche) that results in a certain degree of similarity in morphology between hyenas and wolves (Canidae), two animals without any intersection.
Why is hyena not a canine? To understand this problem, we only need to analyze it from three aspects: first, genes.
People used to classify animals by "judging people by their appearance", but with the development and progress of science and the improvement of molecular biology, gene sequencing and other scientific means, we have a more accurate classification of animals.
At present, scientists have classified the whole carnivore through gene sequencing.
From a genetic perspective, the entire carnivore has a common ancestor. Later, over time, the carnivore has evolved into the canine suborder and the feline suborder, while the hyenae is in the feline suborder, belonging to the mongoose superfamily. From a genetic perspective, they are most closely related to the mongoose family (the snake mongoose is a member of the mongoose family), followed by the civet family, Canidae is a family under the suborder Caniformes.
Therefore, from a genetic perspective, hyenaceae is also very different from canidae.
The second is bone morphology.
Although hyenas are somewhat similar to canids in appearance, after removing the "coat", we can see that the difference between the two bones is quite large.
First of all, although the neck of the canine is longer than that of the feline, it is shorter and thinner than that of the hyena, and its snout is also more prominent, flat and long, while that of the hyena is different. The snout is not as prominent as that of the canine, and it is higher and shorter.
It is precisely because of this structure that spotted hyenas have more powerful teeth and canine bite force than their body size. Under the same body size, the bite force of hyenas is unmatched by any canine.
Secondly, the limbs of canids are almost the same length, but the front legs of hyenas are obviously longer than the back legs.
(The position marked in purple is the snout) The third is the tongue difference.
Many carnivores have "barbs" on their tongues. These barbs are formed by cutification of the tongue. For animals with such tongues, they can lick the meat on the bones of prey.
Although hyenas have strong bite force and can crush bones, their tongues still have "barbs", and all canines have smooth tongues.
Therefore, hyenas are obviously different from canidae in terms of both genes and bone morphology. On the contrary, some characteristics of hyenas are more similar to those of cats and mongooses. However, because many characteristics of hyenas (such as unequal length of front and rear legs, female with "fake male genitalia", etc.) are different from any animal, It fully meets the requirements of being an independent discipline.
It is concluded that although hyena has "dog" in its name, it is not a canine, and according to gene sequencing and molecular biology research, it is not even close to the feline family.
As for the reason why it has "dog" in its name, it is because it is the closest to the niche of canids and is caused by convergent evolution.
Therefore, hyenas belong to Hyenaceae, cat suborder, not canine suborder.
Hyenas belong to the hyenaceae. Although they have the word "dog", they are not canine, which is easy to understand.
For example, kangaroos are not rodents, and whales are not fish.
