Megalochoerus
| Megalochoerus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Suidae |
| Tribe: | †Kubanochoerini |
| Genus: | †Megalochoerus Pickford, 1993 |
| Type species | |
| †Megalochoerus humungous Pickford, 1993
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| Species | |
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Megalochoerus is an extinct genus of large and long-legged pig-like animals from the Miocene of Africa.[1][2]
Taxonomy
[edit | edit source]The species M. khinzikebirus and M. marymuunguae were once considered to belong to the related Kubanochoerus or Libycochoerus, but have since been reassigned to Megalochoerus.[3]
Megalochoerus marymuuguae was the smallest and earliest of the three species, while M. humungous was the latest occurring and largest.[4]
Description
[edit | edit source]Megalochoerus contained some of the largest suids ever known to exist. Pickford & Morales originally compared the size of M. khinzikebirus, intermediate between the other two species, to a hippopotamus, with M. homungous, the largest species of the genus, being even larger, as big as a gomphothere.[5] Based on dental morphology, the weight of M. khinzikebirus was originally estimated to have been as high as 1,104 kg (2,434 lb). However, the dimensions of its distal humerus indicate that it was considerably smaller. As the articulation of the distal humeral in this species was 60 mm, compared to 40 mm in modern wild boars, upscaling from the latter results in mass estimates of 303 kg (if using the average weight of a boar) and 675 kg (using the boar's maximum size).[6]
References
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- ^ Pickford, Martin. 1993. Old world suoid systematics, phylogeny, biogeography, and biostratigraphy. Paleontologia i Evolució. 26-27: 237-269.
- ^ M. Pickford. 2007. Suidae and hippopotamidae from the Middle Miocene of Kipsaraman, Kenya and other sites in East Africa. Palaeontological Research 11(1):85-105
- ^ Bishop LC (2010) Suoidea. In: Werdelin L, Sanders WJ, editors. Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 821–842.
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- ^ Pickford M. & Morales J. (2003). — New Listriodontinae (Mammalia, Suidae) from Europe and a review of listriodont evolution, biostratigraphy and biogeography. Geodiversitas. 25 (2) : 347-404.
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