1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in nineteen ninety nine, researchers found what 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 1: looked suspiciously like a meat cash. The Society for Vertebrate 4 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: Paleontology had been given a report on a strange bone 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:26,799 Speaker 1: bed found near Douglas, Wyoming. Huddled together in a big 6 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:30,520 Speaker 1: pile were the fossilized skeletons of at least six different 7 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:35,239 Speaker 1: extinct North American camels. Compared to the humpbacked beasts of 8 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: burden we know today, these were relatively small, about the 9 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: size of domestic sheep. The skeletons at this particular site 10 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,880 Speaker 1: were deposited around thirty three point four million years ago. 11 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,200 Speaker 1: Many of the specimens had retained their heads, necks, ribcages, 12 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: and front legs, but the back legs and hips. In 13 00:00:54,800 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: other words, the camel's meaty hindquarters were missing. Oh what's more, distinctive, 14 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: tooth marks riddled the bones. The evidence suggests that the 15 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: pile of camel remains might have been a prehistoric meat locker, 16 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 1: a cash where some predators had dragged and stored their prey. 17 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: A look at the region's fossil record revealed that there 18 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,560 Speaker 1: was a killer beast alive back then whose teeth perfectly 19 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:26,399 Speaker 1: matched those gnarly bite marks. Its name is Archaetherium. Weighing 20 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: an estimated six hundred pounds or about two hundred and 21 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: seventy kilos, and measuring four and a half feet tall 22 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: of the shoulder that's one and a half meters, this 23 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 1: creature would have been a sight to see. It walked 24 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: on cloven hoofs, Its legs were long and thin, There 25 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: were bony knobs on its jawbones, and the animal's lengthy 26 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: snout was full of crushing teeth. Archaeotherium belonged to a 27 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: group of omnivores the patrolled Eurasia, North America, and Africa 28 00:01:55,800 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: for millions of years. These were the terrifying inteledonts. Intelliedants 29 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: have definitely won the awesome nickname sweepstakes. They're sometimes, if informally, 30 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: called hell pigs or terminator pigs of porkine as these 31 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: creatures might appear, though they're classified in a different taxonomical 32 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: family than modern pigs. Opinions have varied over where they 33 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,639 Speaker 1: belong on the mammalian family tree. Everyone agrees that intellidants 34 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: wore arteodactyls, the order that includes whales and all of 35 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: the hooked mammals with an even number of toes, like camels, goats, 36 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: and hippos. What's up for debate is their placement inside 37 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: that group. Scientists used to think that pigs represent the 38 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 1: intelliedant's closest living relatives, but that's no longer the consensus. 39 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: A two thousand and nine paper concluded that these beasties 40 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:55,040 Speaker 1: were actually more akin to hippos and whales. A more 41 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: than fifty intelligant species have come to light. The oldest 42 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: that we're aware of rooted around China roughly thirty eight 43 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: million years ago, shortly after the group made its way 44 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:11,639 Speaker 1: to North America. Early varieties tended to have short snouts, 45 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: but within a few million years natural selection lengthened their 46 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:19,400 Speaker 1: upper and lower jaws. Though the intelligents started out small, 47 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: huge ones quickly arrived on the scene. Archaethereum was one 48 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: of the first truly large intellidonts, but by no means 49 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:31,920 Speaker 1: was it the biggest. As recently as eighteen million years ago, 50 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: the Great Plains of North America were home to the 51 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: towering Dayodon. At its shoulder this animal stood just under 52 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: seven feet in height that's about two meters. Scientists think 53 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: it could have tipped the scales at nine hundred and 54 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: thirty pounds, or more so, over four hundred and thirty kilos. 55 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: Daidon's head alone was three feet or a meter long. 56 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: To support its weighty skull, the creature had powerful neck 57 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 1: muscles connected to arches on the vertebra in its shoulder area, 58 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: so like a bison or white rhino, it may have 59 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: had a visible hump on its back. Your typical inteledont 60 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: mouth had a combination of long canine tusks and blunt 61 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,360 Speaker 1: cheek teeth. A no living mammal has quite the same 62 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: arrangement of pearly whites. A. Judging by the anatomy of 63 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: these snout and the bony surfaces where the jaw muscles 64 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: would have been anchored, it's clear that inteloedants could open 65 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: their mouths quite widely, and if the size of those 66 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 1: muscle attachment points are any indication, the larger, long snouted 67 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: hell pigs delivered powerful bites alike today's pigs and teleedants 68 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: were almost certainly omnivores, aware marks on their teeth suggest 69 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: the animals spent a lot of time gnawing on bones. 70 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: Paleontologists speculate that inteloedants were efficient scavengers that probably took 71 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: down live prey as well. Hard roots, eggs, fruits, and 72 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,160 Speaker 1: vegetation may have also played an importan role in their diets. 73 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: But inteledant teeth weren't just reserved for meal time. Gouge 74 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:10,560 Speaker 1: like tooth marks have been found on some intelligant skulls. 75 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,920 Speaker 1: A puncture wounds and healed over scratches, sometimes measuring almost 76 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: an inch or two centimeters deep, tell us that the 77 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: animals occasionally fought by biting each other's faces. A few 78 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: animals bear tusque injuries around their eyes. However, being able 79 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,599 Speaker 1: to intimidate your rivals is also an important skill for 80 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: many territorial mammals. That might explain why so many intelligants 81 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: had long, flaring cheek bones projecting from the sides of 82 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:42,000 Speaker 1: their heads. Another hypothesis is that these two were muscle 83 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: anchoring points. In addition, numerous species possessed bony knobs on 84 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,799 Speaker 1: the undersides of their jaws that could have played roles 85 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: in intimidation or one on one combat. The last intelligants 86 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: died out about sixteen million years ago. No one knows 87 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: why they when extinct, but the spread of new equally 88 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: massive mam million predators could have had something to do 89 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:10,159 Speaker 1: with it, like the also now extinct bear dogs, but 90 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 1: they're a different episode. Today's episode is based on the 91 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,679 Speaker 1: article scary prehistoric hell pigs once roam to the Earth 92 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Green 93 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks 94 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more 95 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:34,080 Speaker 1: podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 96 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.