Lot 5

Pleistocene Fossil Hyena Skull and Mandible

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Lot 5
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Pleistocene Fossil Hyena Skull and Mandible
Pleistocene Fossil Hyena Skull and Mandible
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Pleistocene Fossil Hyena Skull and Mandible

Estimate: $5,000 - $7,500

Current Bid: $2,000

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Eurasia, Pliocene to Late Pleistocene, ca. 3 million to 20,000 years ago. A fossilized hyena skull and mandible, a grin built for the apocalypse, set in chalk-pale bone and ochre-stained matrix. The cranium is short, broad, and powerfully built: a domed braincase rising behind forward-set orbits, a sagittal crest scoured deep by the anchor of jaw muscles strong enough to render the femur of a horse into splinters. The rostrum terminates in a pair of robust upper canines, and behind them sit the great conical premolars, low-crowned and thick at the base, engineered not to slice but to crush. The mandible answers in kind, its corpus running deep through the molar field, the masseteric fossa excavated by the bite that gave Pleistocene hyaenids their place at the top of the carrion economy. Size: 6.7" W x 6.8" H x 10.1" D (17.0 cm W x 17.3 cm H x 25.7 cm D); of longest tooth: 1.2" L (3.0 cm L)

Cranial proportions and dental robustness place the animal squarely within Hyaenidae, with the leading candidates being Pachycrocuta brevirostris, the giant short-faced hyena that ranged from Iberia to Zhoukoudian between roughly 3 million and 500,000 years ago, and Crocuta crocuta spelaea, the cave hyena of the Middle to Late Pleistocene. The former was the largest hyaenid that ever lived, a 110-kilogram bone-processor whose den deposits at sites like Venta Micena preserve drifts of cracked prey bone. The latter shared the European caves with cave bears and Neanderthals, and left its tooth marks on both. Either way, this skull belongs to the animal that closed the gap between death and dust, the engine that reduced antelope, equid, and even proboscidean to fragments and powder. To hold it is to face down a predator deep time has otherwise erased.

Provenance: private Texas, USA Collection

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Item # 202941

  • Condition: Head and bottom jaw are detached. Professionaly repaired from several pieces with infill, restoration, and resurfacing over break lines and fissures. Less than 10% restoration. Bar added to lower jaw for stabilization. Impressive overall presentation with rich earthen encrustations.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000