Entelodonts, the hell pigs
Bison-sized omnivores with bone-crushing jaws and warty facial flanges roam the northern plains.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 11 million years
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Oligocene, Cenozoic
Entelodonts such as Archaeotherium and Daeodon are artiodactyls, distantly related to pigs and hippos, standing up to two metres at the shoulder with massive skulls, heavy jaw muscles and strange bony knobs on their cheeks. Their teeth and bite marks indicate an omnivorous diet including bone, and healed bite wounds on their own skulls — matching entelodont tooth spacing — suggest they routinely put each other's heads in their mouths, in the way modern hippos spar. They are among the most distinctive animals of the Oligocene and leave no descendants.