• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Ancient “Hell Pigs” With Massive Teeth Are Actually Misunderstood Omnivores

January 25, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Two ancient, funky-looking mammals, anthracotheres and entelodonts, have been the subject of a new study looking at their teeth. Anthracotheres bear some resemblance to modern-day pigs and hippos and are thought to have had a diet of fruits and foliage. Entelodonts, also known as “hell pigs”, had powerful heads, were thought to crush bones like hyenas, and were believed to have an opportunistic diet where they hunted large herbivores and scavenged. 

By looking closely at the way the teeth have been worn away, and comparing the fossil samples to modern-day mammals such as bears, otters, and lions, the team have suggested different diets than previously thought for both anthracotheres and entelodont species.

Advertisement

In the microwear dental analysis of the two species, the pits, scratches, and gouges on the fossil teeth were looked at using a stereomicroscope. The anthracotherium sp. had more pits, wider gouges, and wider scratches than Entelodon magnus. Entelodon magnus had more puncture pits and more cross scratches across the surface of the teeth in the sample. 

Different fossil teeth on a black background

Anthracothere and entelodont tooth remains. Image Credit: Rivals, F., et al. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2023)

Entelodonts were large mammals that roamed around in the Oligocene and early Miocene. They typically had large skulls, with large canines and incisors; this suggests that they had a powerful bite similar to carnivores. However, by looking specifically at the microwear of the dentition, the study revealed that entelodonts had an omnivore’s diet quite similar to that of a wild boar, but not the same as a predator like a brown bear. 

They suggest that the microwear pattern on the teeth shows that Entelodon magnus did not hunt large herbivores or crush bones as previously thought.

Advertisement

The microwear analysis of the anthracotheres shows that they are thought to be opportunistic herbivores with some species grazing and some eating a mainly fruit-based diet. 

The paper is published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Norway coalition talks start, with climate and oil in focus
  2. Indonesian fintech Xendit is now a unicorn, with $150M in fresh funding led by Tiger Global
  3. U.S. Senator Cruz vows to block new Democratic debt ceiling ploy
  4. Yellen says U.S. may exhaust cash by Oct 18 barring debt ceiling rise

Source Link: Ancient “Hell Pigs” With Massive Teeth Are Actually Misunderstood Omnivores

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • If Deep-Sea Pressure Can Crush A Human Body, How Do Deep-Sea Creatures Not Implode?
  • Meet Ned: The Lonely Lefty Snail Looking For Love
  • “America Will Lead The Next Giant Leap”: NASA Announces New Milestone In Hunt For Exoplanets
  • What Did Neanderthals Sound Like?
  • One Star System Could Soon Dazzle Us Twice With Nova And Supernova Explosions
  • Unethical Experiments: When Scientists Really Should Have Stopped What They Were Doing Immediately
  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • The First Ever Full Asteroid History: From Its Doomed Discovery To Collecting Its Meteorites
  • World’s Oldest Pachycephalosaur Fossil Pushes Back These Dinosaurs’ Emergence By 15 Million Years
  • The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Healing And On Track For Full Recovery In The 21st Century, Thanks To Science
  • First Sweet Potato Genome Reveals They’re Hybrids With A Puzzling Past And 6 Sets Of Chromosomes
  • Why Is The Top Of Canada So Sparsely Populated? Meet The “Canadian Shield”
  • Humans Are In The Middle Of “A Great Evolutionary Transition”, New Paper Claims
  • Why Do Some Toilets Have Two Flush Buttons?
  • 130-Year-Old Butter Additive Discovered In Danish Basement Contains Bacteria From The 1890s
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version