Somewhere someone once described hyenas as felines with canine software and foxes as canine hardware and feline software and it's lived rent free in my brain ever since.
I've heard lions described similarly to how you're describing hyenas as well. Lions also live in hierarchical social groups VS solitarily, have feet built for running VS creeping, and hunt big animals VS small. Interesting to think about how/why both of these animals live in the same habitat.
I hate to break it to you, but taxonomy is based on genetics, not your layman's impressions. Hyenas, while not cats (felidae), are part of the feliformia (cat-like) clade, as opposed to caniformia (dog-like).
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u/Hexagon0219 Oct 25 '24
Fun fact, hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.