Daeodon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Daeodon Fossil range: Early Miocene |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Species | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Synonyms | ||||||||||||
|
Daeodon (formerly Dinohyus, "terrible hog") is a genus of prehistoric mammal, a member of the Entelodont family, lived 20-18 million years ago in North America.
The 3 m (10 ft) long animal looked like a giant, monstrous pig, possessing huge jaws with deadly tusks. It was a huge, bone-crushing scavenger and predator, found at Agate Springs Quarry. [1] It had long skull bones under its eyes and bony protrusions on the lower jaw, not dissimilar to the 'warts' of the warthog, which may have supported jaw muscles. The well-known genus Dinohyus ("terrible pig") is now known to have belonged to this genus.[2] Since Daeodon is the earlier name, it has priority.
[edit] References
- ^ Prothero, Donald R. (2005). "After the dinosaurs. The age of mammals".
- ^ Lucas, S.G., Emry, R.J., and Foss, S.E. (1997). "Taxonomy and distribution of Daeodon, an Oligocene-Miocene entelodont (Mammalia: Artiodactyla) from North America." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 111(2): 425-435.
[edit] External links
Abstract of the 1998 paper on Daeodon taxonomy (link no longer valid 2008/05/15)
 This prehistoric mammal-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
