Hogs from Hell
You may know these beasts by their alternative name, the 'Terminator Pigs.' Whatever you wish to call them these are the entelodonts and despite what you think you know these aren't really pigs at all! In the past, entelodonts were classified as members of Suina, however, Spaulding et al. have came to the conclusion that these omnivores were more closely related to hippos and whales rather than pigs.
Entelodonts packed powerful, box-like bodies with heavy heads; making them a formidable threat to any animal. The skull harnessed the enlarged jugals (cheekbones) which is believed to have been a mounting point for surplus of jaw muscles; giving the entelodonts an insane bite force. Additionally they had a mouthful of teeth ranging from incisors, canines, pre-molars, and molars. The legs were short and surprisingly thin for such a large animal, but would allow them to reach high running speeds over a short distance.
Then we come to the debate as to what these animals ate. Entelodonts have been described as herbivores due to their pig-like characteristics, using their large canines to devour roots and tubers. Although with so much new information on these animals we can guarantee to you that they were not strictly herbivores. For one, the incisors were angled forward to grab flesh or bone instead of downwards like in other primary herbivores used for cropping plants. And two, a herbivore wouldn't benefit much from having such a strong bite. When it comes to prey, almost anything was on the menu. Primitive horses, camels, rhinoceros, and even chalicotheres all bear evidence of being victims. In one instance an entelodont by the name of Archaeotherium has displayed hoarding behaviors, storing away the remains of an ancient camel to devour later. The dentition in the entelodonts allowed them to consume both meat and plants making them omnivores. But how much foliage did they eat? It is plausible that entelodonts were hyper carnivores and not feeding on plants at all. The exact ratio between meat and plants in an entelodont's diet varies among genus with some leaning towards meat.
Scavenging was also an option. With bone crushing jaws at their disposal an entelodont could crack bones of carcasses to access the nutrious bone marrow within. Not just that, but with their size an entelodont could simply steal the hard earned kill from another, smaller predator.
We also know that entelodonts have keen senses of smell that help with a scavenging lifestyle. We can gain a better understanding by looking at trackways; specifically trackways in Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska, USA. This site contains a good deal of trackways left by many different mammals such as early rhinos, but it also features entelodont trackways. These entelodont trackways are shown to be following another animal, but they do so in a zigzag pattern and not in a straight line. By travelling in this zigzag fashion we know that the entelodont wasn't chasing its prey. It was tracking it and using its strong nose to narrow in on its location. Whatever the case, scavenging was a very real likelihood.
Entelodonts were rather successful animals spanning from the later parts of the Eocene period to the early Miocene (roughly a 20 million year range). And over these years the entelodonts evolved to be more powerful and the largest genera being Paraentelodon and Daeodon. Yet despite their fierce reputation the entelodonts eventually succumbed to extinction.
When it comes to the topic of extinction there are often many factors at play. Here, we will go over three of the leading factors that contributed to their demise:
1. Climate Change
Climate change was an on-going epidemic throughout the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. Global cooling has been shifting the Earth's ecosystems from tropical forests to open grasslands which would trigger a shift in some suitable vegitation.
For example, at around this time primitive horses were making the switch from browsing foliage to grazing on grass.
2. New Prey
With this change in environment, the herbivores which the entelodonts preyed on also changed. Some herbivores, now with more open grasslands evolved longer legs to run faster and at a longer distance allowing them to outpace the sprinting entelodonts. And to top it off, these grasslands provided less cover for the entelodonts to hunt in which is essential for an ambush predator.
3. New Competition
This last scenario is often viewed as the most likely. Entelodonts like Daeodon could have used their large size and intimidation to drive away other predators from their kills, but the early Miocene saw the rise of new predators that were bigger, more aggressive, and above all more intelligent then the simple-minded entelodonts. By the middle of the Miocene the entelodonts were overall outclassed. Not being able to steal prey, hunt faster prey, or forage on the new vegetation the entelodonts failed to adapt and in turn...died off.
Entelodonts packed powerful, box-like bodies with heavy heads; making them a formidable threat to any animal. The skull harnessed the enlarged jugals (cheekbones) which is believed to have been a mounting point for surplus of jaw muscles; giving the entelodonts an insane bite force. Additionally they had a mouthful of teeth ranging from incisors, canines, pre-molars, and molars. The legs were short and surprisingly thin for such a large animal, but would allow them to reach high running speeds over a short distance.
Then we come to the debate as to what these animals ate. Entelodonts have been described as herbivores due to their pig-like characteristics, using their large canines to devour roots and tubers. Although with so much new information on these animals we can guarantee to you that they were not strictly herbivores. For one, the incisors were angled forward to grab flesh or bone instead of downwards like in other primary herbivores used for cropping plants. And two, a herbivore wouldn't benefit much from having such a strong bite. When it comes to prey, almost anything was on the menu. Primitive horses, camels, rhinoceros, and even chalicotheres all bear evidence of being victims. In one instance an entelodont by the name of Archaeotherium has displayed hoarding behaviors, storing away the remains of an ancient camel to devour later. The dentition in the entelodonts allowed them to consume both meat and plants making them omnivores. But how much foliage did they eat? It is plausible that entelodonts were hyper carnivores and not feeding on plants at all. The exact ratio between meat and plants in an entelodont's diet varies among genus with some leaning towards meat.
Scavenging was also an option. With bone crushing jaws at their disposal an entelodont could crack bones of carcasses to access the nutrious bone marrow within. Not just that, but with their size an entelodont could simply steal the hard earned kill from another, smaller predator.
We also know that entelodonts have keen senses of smell that help with a scavenging lifestyle. We can gain a better understanding by looking at trackways; specifically trackways in Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska, USA. This site contains a good deal of trackways left by many different mammals such as early rhinos, but it also features entelodont trackways. These entelodont trackways are shown to be following another animal, but they do so in a zigzag pattern and not in a straight line. By travelling in this zigzag fashion we know that the entelodont wasn't chasing its prey. It was tracking it and using its strong nose to narrow in on its location. Whatever the case, scavenging was a very real likelihood.
Entelodonts were rather successful animals spanning from the later parts of the Eocene period to the early Miocene (roughly a 20 million year range). And over these years the entelodonts evolved to be more powerful and the largest genera being Paraentelodon and Daeodon. Yet despite their fierce reputation the entelodonts eventually succumbed to extinction.
When it comes to the topic of extinction there are often many factors at play. Here, we will go over three of the leading factors that contributed to their demise:
1. Climate Change
Climate change was an on-going epidemic throughout the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. Global cooling has been shifting the Earth's ecosystems from tropical forests to open grasslands which would trigger a shift in some suitable vegitation.
For example, at around this time primitive horses were making the switch from browsing foliage to grazing on grass.
2. New Prey
With this change in environment, the herbivores which the entelodonts preyed on also changed. Some herbivores, now with more open grasslands evolved longer legs to run faster and at a longer distance allowing them to outpace the sprinting entelodonts. And to top it off, these grasslands provided less cover for the entelodonts to hunt in which is essential for an ambush predator.
3. New Competition
This last scenario is often viewed as the most likely. Entelodonts like Daeodon could have used their large size and intimidation to drive away other predators from their kills, but the early Miocene saw the rise of new predators that were bigger, more aggressive, and above all more intelligent then the simple-minded entelodonts. By the middle of the Miocene the entelodonts were overall outclassed. Not being able to steal prey, hunt faster prey, or forage on the new vegetation the entelodonts failed to adapt and in turn...died off.
Some Entelodont Genera:
Archaeotherium
Brachyhyops
Cyretherium
Daeodon
Entelodon
Eoentelodon
Paraentelodon
Archaeotherium
Brachyhyops
Cyretherium
Daeodon
Entelodon
Eoentelodon
Paraentelodon
Discovering the First Dinosaurs
Fossils belonging to prehistoric creatures have been discovered for thousands upon thousands of years! In China, various fossils were believed to have been fire breathing dragons. While in Europe they were thought to have been giants or other biblical beasts. In this article we will learn about the first dinosaurs to ever be identified by science!
The First
The first dinosaur to be discovered was uncovered in the limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. This single bone was then delivered to the professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford; Robert Plot. A year later, in 1677, Plot successfully classified the bone as the femur of a large animal. But what large animal exactly? This femur was too large to belong to any known species. So, Robert Plot concluded that it was a portion of a giant's leg; a giant similar to Goliath from the Bible.
Now jumping ahead by a few years to a time between 1815 and 1824 a geology professor at Oxford by the name William Buckland gathered more fossils ad described this animal as a new species in a scientific journal -- Megalosaurus.
The Second
Meanwhile, in 1822, some large fossilized teeth were discovered by Mary Ann Mantell; the wife of the English geologist Gideon Mantell.
At first, the Royal Society of London dismissed these findings as the teeth from a fish or perhaps a rhinoceros. Convinced, Gideon Mantell was sure that he had something different so he seeked the help of Samuel Stutchbury, an English naturalist and geologist, in September 1824. Stutchbury pointed out that these fossilized teeth resembled those of an iguana; a ginormous iguana to be exact. With this new information Gideon Mantell eventually settled on a name for the beast -- Iguanodon or "iguana-tooth." Mantell formerly published his findings on Feburary 10, 1825 when presenting a paper to the Royal Society of London.
The Third
A letter written by Gideon Mantell was sent to the Professor Benjamin Silliman on July 20, 1832. Inside this letter Mantell described that when a gunpowder explosion had destroyed a quarry rock face in Tilgate Forest it revealed the bones of a saurian. A local fossil dealer assembled together approximately fifty pieces before Mantell purchased them. Luckily for Mantell these pieces were able to form together a partially articulated skeleton. And it was a matter of time before others pointed out the presence of plates and spikes. This one had body armor!
In November of that same year Mantell decided to create a new generic name: Hylaeosaurus. When compared to Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus was the most bizarre but it never received the same popularity as the other two.
Introducing: Dinosauria
And at long last, in 1842, the English paleontologist Richard Owen published a general account for the group of Mesozoic terrestrial reptiles and coined the name Dinosauria from Greek δεινός (deinos) "terrible, powerful, wondrous" + σαῦρος (sauros) "lizard". Richard Owen used three genera of reptiles as a baseline for this new taxon: the carnivorous Megalosaurus, the herbivorous Iguanodon, and the armored Hylaeosaurus.
The First
The first dinosaur to be discovered was uncovered in the limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. This single bone was then delivered to the professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford; Robert Plot. A year later, in 1677, Plot successfully classified the bone as the femur of a large animal. But what large animal exactly? This femur was too large to belong to any known species. So, Robert Plot concluded that it was a portion of a giant's leg; a giant similar to Goliath from the Bible.
Now jumping ahead by a few years to a time between 1815 and 1824 a geology professor at Oxford by the name William Buckland gathered more fossils ad described this animal as a new species in a scientific journal -- Megalosaurus.
The Second
Meanwhile, in 1822, some large fossilized teeth were discovered by Mary Ann Mantell; the wife of the English geologist Gideon Mantell.
At first, the Royal Society of London dismissed these findings as the teeth from a fish or perhaps a rhinoceros. Convinced, Gideon Mantell was sure that he had something different so he seeked the help of Samuel Stutchbury, an English naturalist and geologist, in September 1824. Stutchbury pointed out that these fossilized teeth resembled those of an iguana; a ginormous iguana to be exact. With this new information Gideon Mantell eventually settled on a name for the beast -- Iguanodon or "iguana-tooth." Mantell formerly published his findings on Feburary 10, 1825 when presenting a paper to the Royal Society of London.
The Third
A letter written by Gideon Mantell was sent to the Professor Benjamin Silliman on July 20, 1832. Inside this letter Mantell described that when a gunpowder explosion had destroyed a quarry rock face in Tilgate Forest it revealed the bones of a saurian. A local fossil dealer assembled together approximately fifty pieces before Mantell purchased them. Luckily for Mantell these pieces were able to form together a partially articulated skeleton. And it was a matter of time before others pointed out the presence of plates and spikes. This one had body armor!
In November of that same year Mantell decided to create a new generic name: Hylaeosaurus. When compared to Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus was the most bizarre but it never received the same popularity as the other two.
Introducing: Dinosauria
And at long last, in 1842, the English paleontologist Richard Owen published a general account for the group of Mesozoic terrestrial reptiles and coined the name Dinosauria from Greek δεινός (deinos) "terrible, powerful, wondrous" + σαῦρος (sauros) "lizard". Richard Owen used three genera of reptiles as a baseline for this new taxon: the carnivorous Megalosaurus, the herbivorous Iguanodon, and the armored Hylaeosaurus.
Dulse's eyes
Good lord, where did he get those peepers? Makes me wonder if the Ultra Recon Squad are a family unit.Those faint amber eyes may be the effect of living in a dark world.
Why you snivy
I'm genuinely upset at this point. 2 shiny snivys yet neither with contrary..
What makes a Dinosaur a Dinosaur?
Dinosaurs are reptiles, but what distinguishes them from other reptiles such as lizards and crocodiles? Well, the answer to this question is rather quite simple. It is all in the hips.
During their long reign, dinosaurs shared the planet with a multitude of other prehistoric creatures. Marine reptiles such as the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs in addition to the flying reptiles -- the pterosaurs. But do not be mistaken as these were not dinosaurs because they lacked the unique hip placement. Marine reptiles were simply reptiles that adapted to an aquatic lifestyle during the Mesozoic Era and pterosaurs could be seen as cousins to the dinosaurs that branched off from a common ancestor.
Clades of Dinosaurs
Dinosauria can be split into two large clades, the Saurischians ("lizard-hipped") and the Ornithischians ("bird-hipped").
Saurischians possessed a three-pronged pelvic structure with the pubis aiming forward. Examples of Saurischians include Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, and Brachiosaurus. While Ornithischians had their pubis rotated backwards, parallel to the ischium, giving the animal a four-pronged structure. Examples of Ornithischians include Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Triceratops.
Saurischia hip on the left. Ornithischia hip on the right.
Blog Search
Recently Updated Blogs
Top Blogs
-
walnuts
(1535)
-
Rayce
(1498)
-
Gryzor
(850)
-
Shawn Yasumara
(712)
-
Rondo
(569)
Latest Comments
dirkj825 — Apr 23, 18
EpicRaptorMan — Apr 23, 18
Ranger 1 — Apr 23, 18
The Answer — Apr 23, 18
Shawn Yasumara — Apr 23, 18