Daeodon
| Daeodon Temporal range: Early Miocene |
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| Daeodon skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | †Entelodontidae |
| Genus: | †Daeodon Cope, 1879 |
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Daeodon (from Greek, daios hostile, destructive, odon "teeth") (formerly Dinohyus, "terrible hog"), one of the largest, if not the largest, entelodont artiodactyls, lived 25-18 million years ago in North America. The 3.6 m (12 ft) long, about 1.8 m at the shoulder, 90 cm long skulled, 600 - 1000 kg mass animal strongly resembled a giant, monstrous pig or warthog, possessing huge jaws with prominent tusks and flaring cheekbones. It possibly 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") has now been synonymized with Daeodon, as the latter is the earlier name, having priority.[2]
[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Abstract of the 1998 paper on Daeodon taxonomy (link no longer valid 2008/05/15)
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