Pliohyrax

{{Short description|Extinct genus of mammals}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Miocene|Pliocene}}

| image = Pliohyrax graecus.JPG

| image_caption = Pliohyrax graecus

| image2 = PliohyraxDB22.jpg

| image2_caption = Life restoration

| taxon = Pliohyrax

| authority = Osborn, 1899

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• †P. graecus (Gaudry, 1862){{Cite web | title = Genus †Pliohyrax | publisher = The Taxonomicon | url = http://taxonomicon.taxonomy.nl/TaxonTree.aspx?id=69187 | date = April 2012 | accessdate = 25 August 2012}}
• †P. rossignoli (Viret, 1947){{Cite web |title = Soblay, excavation from 1949: MN 10, France |publisher = The Taxonomicon |url = http://museumu03.museumwww.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=displayCollectionDetails&collection_no=36634 |accessdate = 25 August 2012 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://archive.today/20121218004405/http://museumu03.museumwww.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=displayCollectionDetails&collection_no=36634 |archivedate = 18 December 2012}}
• †P. occidentalis (Viret & Thenius, 1952)

| synonyms =

• Sogdohyrax Dubrovo, 1978{{cite journal |last1=Pickford |first1=M. |last2=Senut |first2=B. |title=Afrohyrax namibensis (Hyracoidea, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Elisabethfeld and Fiskus, Sperrgebiet, Namibia |journal=Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia |date=2018 |volume=18 |pages=93–112 |url=http://www.mme.gov.na/files/publications/115_Pickford%20and%20Senut2018_Afrohyrax%20namibiensis%20from%20the%20Sperrgebiet.pdf}}

}}

Pliohyrax, is a genus of hyracoids (the cavy-like group of animals most closely related to elephants and manatees). It grew to sizes greatly exceeding those of any living hyrax, though it was by no means the largest member of this family.

Fossils of this Miocene-Pliocene herbivore have been found in Afghanistan, France, and Turkey.{{Cite web | title = Pliohyrax | publisher = Paleobiology Database | url = https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=43305 | access-date = 25 August 2012}}

In Spain, Pliohyrax graecus is among the large mammals species found in the Almenara site, deposited during the Messinian salinity crisis, together with Macaca sp., Bovidae indet., cf. Nyctereutes sp., and Felidae indet.{{Cite journal | last1 = Agustí | first1 = Jordi | last2 = Garcés | first2 = Miguel | last3 = Krijgsman | first3 = Wout | title = Evidence for African–Iberian exchanges during the Messinian in the Spanish mammalian record | journal = Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | year = 2006 | volume = 238 | issue = 1–4 | pages = 5–14 | url = http://www.geo.uu.nl/~forth/publications/Agusti_2006.pdf | doi = 10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.03.013| bibcode = 2006PPP...238....5A }}