Rare Peccary Lower Tooth, Perchoerus Fossil, Oligocene, South Dakota, A263

Description

Type: This is a rare jaw section from the peccary,
Perchoerus sp.
.  Remains of peccaries are seldom found and occur with about the same regularity as their Archaeotherium cousins.  Will make a nice addition to the collection.
Locality: Private land in Pennington County, South Dakota
Age: Oligocene, 30 Million Years Ago
Read below pictures for information about this specimen and the area it was found.
Note:  Ruler increments are 1/16 inch.
Entelodontidae
Giant Pigs, Archaeotherium, Dinohyus
Suoidea - This dramatic superfamily includes the Suididae or true pigs; Tayassuidae or fossil and extant peccaries; and Entelodontidae, extinct pig-like animals that include the well known Archaeotherium and Dinohyus. Entelodonts are extinct bunodont suids which entered North America from Asia during the late Eocene in an already derived format. Large in size, the remains of Archaeotherium are most common in late Chadronian and early Oligocene floodplain environments of the White River Badlands.
Other related groups of the superfamily Suoidea include the much smaller peccaries, Tayassuidae, of which at least 17 genera show similarities to modern day peccaries. Like entelodonts, their teeth were strong and robust, with large tusk-like canines but their skulls were much less massive than those of entelodonts and overall, most fossil peccaries were similar in size to extant species. Unlike entelodonts which became extinct in the late Hemmingfordian NALMA, peccaries are primarily a genera recorded after the start of the Miocene; three genera are still living today. Two additional but poorly understood genera of primitive peccaries are known only from the late Chadronian through the early Arikareean NALMA.
Written by Ryan C