WEBVTT - What Were Prehistoric 'Hell Pigs'?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in nineteen ninety nine, researchers found what

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<v Speaker 1>looked suspiciously like a meat cash. The Society for Vertebrate

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<v Speaker 1>Paleontology had been given a report on a strange bone

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<v Speaker 1>bed found near Douglas, Wyoming. Huddled together in a big

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<v Speaker 1>pile were the fossilized skeletons of at least six different

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<v Speaker 1>extinct North American camels. Compared to the humpbacked beasts of

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<v Speaker 1>burden we know today, these were relatively small, about the

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<v Speaker 1>size of domestic sheep. The skeletons at this particular site

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<v Speaker 1>were deposited around thirty three point four million years ago.

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<v Speaker 1>Many of the specimens had retained their heads, necks, ribcages,

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<v Speaker 1>and front legs, but the back legs and hips. In

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<v Speaker 1>other words, the camel's meaty hindquarters were missing. Oh what's more, distinctive,

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<v Speaker 1>tooth marks riddled the bones. The evidence suggests that the

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<v Speaker 1>pile of camel remains might have been a prehistoric meat locker,

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<v Speaker 1>a cash where some predators had dragged and stored their prey.

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<v Speaker 1>A look at the region's fossil record revealed that there

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<v Speaker 1>was a killer beast alive back then whose teeth perfectly

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<v Speaker 1>matched those gnarly bite marks. Its name is Archaetherium. Weighing

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<v Speaker 1>an estimated six hundred pounds or about two hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>seventy kilos, and measuring four and a half feet tall

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<v Speaker 1>of the shoulder that's one and a half meters, this

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<v Speaker 1>creature would have been a sight to see. It walked

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<v Speaker 1>on cloven hoofs, Its legs were long and thin, There

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<v Speaker 1>were bony knobs on its jawbones, and the animal's lengthy

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<v Speaker 1>snout was full of crushing teeth. Archaeotherium belonged to a

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<v Speaker 1>group of omnivores the patrolled Eurasia, North America, and Africa

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<v Speaker 1>for millions of years. These were the terrifying inteledonts. Intelliedants

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<v Speaker 1>have definitely won the awesome nickname sweepstakes. They're sometimes, if informally,

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<v Speaker 1>called hell pigs or terminator pigs of porkine as these

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<v Speaker 1>creatures might appear, though they're classified in a different taxonomical

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<v Speaker 1>family than modern pigs. Opinions have varied over where they

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<v Speaker 1>belong on the mammalian family tree. Everyone agrees that intellidants

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<v Speaker 1>wore arteodactyls, the order that includes whales and all of

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<v Speaker 1>the hooked mammals with an even number of toes, like camels, goats,

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<v Speaker 1>and hippos. What's up for debate is their placement inside

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<v Speaker 1>that group. Scientists used to think that pigs represent the

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<v Speaker 1>intelliedant's closest living relatives, but that's no longer the consensus.

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<v Speaker 1>A two thousand and nine paper concluded that these beasties

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<v Speaker 1>were actually more akin to hippos and whales. A more

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<v Speaker 1>than fifty intelligant species have come to light. The oldest

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<v Speaker 1>that we're aware of rooted around China roughly thirty eight

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<v Speaker 1>million years ago, shortly after the group made its way

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<v Speaker 1>to North America. Early varieties tended to have short snouts,

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<v Speaker 1>but within a few million years natural selection lengthened their

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<v Speaker 1>upper and lower jaws. Though the intelligents started out small,

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<v Speaker 1>huge ones quickly arrived on the scene. Archaethereum was one

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<v Speaker 1>of the first truly large intellidonts, but by no means

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<v Speaker 1>was it the biggest. As recently as eighteen million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>the Great Plains of North America were home to the

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<v Speaker 1>towering Dayodon. At its shoulder this animal stood just under

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<v Speaker 1>seven feet in height that's about two meters. Scientists think

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<v Speaker 1>it could have tipped the scales at nine hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>thirty pounds, or more so, over four hundred and thirty kilos.

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<v Speaker 1>Daidon's head alone was three feet or a meter long.

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<v Speaker 1>To support its weighty skull, the creature had powerful neck

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<v Speaker 1>muscles connected to arches on the vertebra in its shoulder area,

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<v Speaker 1>so like a bison or white rhino, it may have

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<v Speaker 1>had a visible hump on its back. Your typical inteledont

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<v Speaker 1>mouth had a combination of long canine tusks and blunt

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<v Speaker 1>cheek teeth. A no living mammal has quite the same

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<v Speaker 1>arrangement of pearly whites. A. Judging by the anatomy of

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<v Speaker 1>these snout and the bony surfaces where the jaw muscles

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<v Speaker 1>would have been anchored, it's clear that inteloedants could open

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<v Speaker 1>their mouths quite widely, and if the size of those

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<v Speaker 1>muscle attachment points are any indication, the larger, long snouted

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<v Speaker 1>hell pigs delivered powerful bites alike today's pigs and teleedants

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<v Speaker 1>were almost certainly omnivores, aware marks on their teeth suggest

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<v Speaker 1>the animals spent a lot of time gnawing on bones.

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<v Speaker 1>Paleontologists speculate that inteloedants were efficient scavengers that probably took

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<v Speaker 1>down live prey as well. Hard roots, eggs, fruits, and

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<v Speaker 1>vegetation may have also played an importan role in their diets.

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<v Speaker 1>But inteledant teeth weren't just reserved for meal time. Gouge

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<v Speaker 1>like tooth marks have been found on some intelligant skulls.

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<v Speaker 1>A puncture wounds and healed over scratches, sometimes measuring almost

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<v Speaker 1>an inch or two centimeters deep, tell us that the

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<v Speaker 1>animals occasionally fought by biting each other's faces. A few

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<v Speaker 1>animals bear tusque injuries around their eyes. However, being able

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<v Speaker 1>to intimidate your rivals is also an important skill for

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<v Speaker 1>many territorial mammals. That might explain why so many intelligants

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<v Speaker 1>had long, flaring cheek bones projecting from the sides of

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<v Speaker 1>their heads. Another hypothesis is that these two were muscle

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<v Speaker 1>anchoring points. In addition, numerous species possessed bony knobs on

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<v Speaker 1>the undersides of their jaws that could have played roles

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<v Speaker 1>in intimidation or one on one combat. The last intelligants

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<v Speaker 1>died out about sixteen million years ago. No one knows

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<v Speaker 1>why they when extinct, but the spread of new equally

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<v Speaker 1>massive mam million predators could have had something to do

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<v Speaker 1>with it, like the also now extinct bear dogs, but

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<v Speaker 1>they're a different episode. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article scary prehistoric hell pigs once roam to the Earth

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<v Speaker 1>on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Green

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more

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