A history of land mammals in the western hemisphere

by William Berryman Scott

Antilocapra, Pleist. and Rec. ?†Dromomeryx, mid. and up. Mioc.

XIV. Bovidæ. Antelopes, Sheep, Goats, Oxen, etc.

†Neotragocerus, †Ilingoceros, †Sphenophalus, low. Plioc. †Preptoceras, †Euceratherium, †Symbos, Pleist. Ovibos, Pleist. and Rec. Bison, Pleist. and Rec.

This list of families and genera, portentous as it is, would be greatly increased by the addition of the Old World forms, which outnumber those of the western hemisphere.

Suborder Suina. Swine-like Animals

The history of the American types of pig-like forms is, in one sense, very full and complete in that the successive genera may be traced back to the Eocene, but, in another sense, the story is exasperatingly imperfect, because so much of the material is fragmentary. Of most of the genera, nothing is known but teeth and jaws, and these, though sufficient for identification, tell but little of the structural changes which it is desirable to know. It is merely a question of time, when more adequate material will be obtained.

1. Tagassuidæ. Peccaries

The peccaries, or American swine, are now chiefly of Neotropical distribution, extending into the Sonoran region only as far as Arkansas; but this has been true only since the Pleistocene, for nearly the entire history of the family has been enacted in North America. In many points of structure the peccaries of the present day are more advanced and specialized than the far more varied and diversified true swine of the Old World, for it is a singular fact that such a long-lived and persistent stock as the peccaries should have given rise to so few variants and side-branches. Existing peccaries all belong to a single genus (Tagassu) and are relatively small animals, of unmistakably pig-like character and appearance, but far smaller than the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) of Europe, or the Wart Hog (Phacochœrus æthiopicus) of Africa, to mention only two of the Old World swine.

Fig. 191.—Dentition of the Collared Peccary (Tagassu tajacu) left side. i 3, external incisor. C, canine, p 2, second premolar (the first is lost), m 1, first molar.