SPOTTED HYAENA SPOTTED ON ISLAND: THE UPPER PLEISTOCENE HYAENAS FROM SAN TEODORO CAVE (SICILY, ITALY) PROVIDE NEW INSIGHTS ON THE PALAEOBIOLOGY, PALAEOECOLOGY, AND SOCIALITY OF CROCUTA

Fossil remains of spotted hyaena, Crocuta crocuta (Erxleben, 1777), are commonly found across Eurasian and African Upper Pleistocene sites, especially in cave deposits. While this species had a wide geographic distribution, palaeontological evidence of its presence in Quaternary insular settings in southern Europe is restricted to Sicily, where the most abundant sample of Crocuta has been recovered from the Upper Pleistocene site of San Teodoro Cave. Previous research on the site recognised the prominent role of hyaenas as a taphonomic agent, with thousands of coprolites and traces on large mammal remains, but no description of the material from a systematic palaeontology perspective has been published to date. Here, we provide the first comprehensive study of Crocuta skeletal remains from the San Teodoro Cave, alongside a comparative analysis of the endocranial anatomy. Biometric and morphological data were compared with those of extant and Upper Pleistocene specimens. Our results reveal that, with respect to roughly coeval samples from mainland Europe, San Teodoro hyaenas were characterised by a slightly reduced body size, indicative of a possible effect of insularity. Furthermore, palaeoneurological analyses demonstrate that the development of the anterior cortex of the brain in the San Teodoro sample is slightly less pronounced compared to extant C. crocuta, but consistent with other Pleistocene fossil spotted hyaenas of Eurasia and Africa. This suggests potential differences in the cognitive and behavioural repertoire, encompassing hunting strategies and social complexity, between the Pleistocene and the extant spotted hyaenas. This study offers new insights into the diversity and distribution of the Middle-Late Pleistocene Crocuta of Europe and confirm the crucial role of San Teodoro Cave in understanding Quaternary insular ecosystems.