?Pigs from hell: what are these terrifying-looking prehistoric mammals
Pig from Hell - Photo credit: Max Bellomio, CC BY-SA 4.0
“Hell pigs” are extinct prehistoric mammals. They owe their nickname to their terrifying appearance with imposing weight, a broad skull and large incisors and canines. So what are these animals and what was their lifestyle?
After the fish of the abyss and their monstrous appearance, discover the terrifying “pigs from hell”. These mammals walked the earth in Prehistory, more precisely from the end of the Eocene to the beginning of the Miocene. However, these animals are not actually pigs. They actually belong to the Entelodontidae family while pigs are part of the Suidae family (along with wild boars and other ungulate mammals).
Entelodonts are nevertheless nicknamed hell pigs because they actually looked like pigs. A study published last year in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, however, reveals that hellpigs are more closely related to hippos and cetaceans than to actual pigs.
The pigs of hell were indeed omnivores
Fossils found of entelodonts confirm that these mammals lived in the northern hemisphere between 38 and 19 million years ago. Paleontologists know approximately when hellpigs went extinct, but they don't yet know precisely why.
In any case, paleontologists were able to determine the diet of hellpigs by studying the wear of the teeth of fossils of Entelodon magnus, a species that lived in Europe. Previous studies claimed that entelodonts were opportunistic hunters of large herbivores with teeth capable of crushing bones, but the study published earlier this year in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology confirms that was not the case. Entelodonts were therefore not carnivores, but omnivores like wild boars. Their diet consisted mainly of fruits and roots, but this did not stop them from feeding on carcasses when the opportunity presented itself.
Some entelodonts weighed up to 900 kg, more than a brown bear
In terms of their physical appearance, “entelodonts share cranial and dental similarities with pigs and carnivores,” explain the researchers in this study. Hellpigs had an imposing skull with a long facial part. To give you an idea, individuals of the Daeodon genus could have skulls up to 90 centimeters long. These mammals also had large incisors and canines accompanied by bony outgrowths in their lower jaw.
In terms of size, entelodonts of the genus Daeodon weighed around 900 kg, a little more than today's brown bears. However, there were also much “smaller” individuals, weighing around 150 kg. Finally, entelodonts were not carnivorous, but they did not have passive behavior. Indeed, paleontologists have found traces of deep, healed bite marks on the fossilized skulls of entelodonts. It is therefore assumed that there was some rivalry between individuals of the species, probably for territory and food.
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