366 LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



2, "^Entelodontidce. "^Giant Pigs 



The tgiant pigs, a most remarkable group of swine-like 

 forms and of as yet unknown origin, appeared for the last time 

 in North America in the lower Miocene, where the genus of that 

 date {^Dinohyus) was the largest of known suilline animals, 

 the hippopotamuses excepted. In nearly every part of the 

 skeleton these great beasts displayed an unusual and aberrant 

 kind of development. The incisors were long and pointed, and 

 the canines formed stout and heavy, though not very long, 

 tusks, which in shape were more like those of a bear than those 

 of either peccaries or swine. The premolars were very simple, 

 of compressed conical and trenchant shape, and occupied a 

 very long space in the jaws, while the molars were relatively 

 small and quadrituberculate, the crowns covered with very 

 thick, coarsely wrinkled enamel. The skull was immensely 

 elongate, especially the facial region in front of the eyes, while 

 the brain-case was so absurdly small as to give the skull a 

 reptilian aspect, when viewed from above. Evidently, these 

 great pigs were profoundly stupid, in this respect rivalling 

 the ftitanotheres of the White River (p. 311). Beneath 

 each eye-socket was a long, descending, bony flap, or process, 

 and on the under side of the lower jaw were two pairs of prom- 

 inent knobs, the function of which, as of the flaps beneath the 

 eyes, is quite problematical. The eye-sockets themselves were 

 completely encircled in bone, a rare character in the suborder. 



The neck was short, as in the pigs generally, the body not 

 very elongate and the tail of moderate length ; at the shoulders, 

 the spines of the dorsal vertebrae were very long, making a 

 decided hump, and in the lumbar and posterior dorsal region the 

 processes for articulation between the vertebrse were extremely 

 elaborate. For one of the pigs, the limbs were very long and 

 gave quite a stilted look to the animal. As in the modern pec- 

 caries, the fore-arm bones were indistinguishably fused together 

 and the feet had only two toes each, the only members of the 



