Paleo File - Daeodon

(Daeodon and Amphicyon by BlueRhino Studios)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grubbing around the plains of Oligocene North America, lived a chimeric beast of pig, bison, and dog-like qualities. This massive beast could go toe-to-toe with an American bison and tear it to shreds with its massive teeth and bone crushing jaws. This terrifying hell-pig, is the mighty, Daeodon!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Pablo Lara)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Oligocene was a time of transition. Animal forms were changing from the weird and wonderful experiments of the early Eocene and Paleocene, to the more familiar forms of the Neogene and Quaternary. There were many mammals with a strange mix of characteristics we see on our world’s modern inhabitants. There were long-legged running rhinoceros, which produced the largest mammal to walk on land, Paraceratherium, and there were strange dog-like animals with an appearance much like marsupials but completely unrelated, and of course, the entelodonts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Properly filled-out Daeodon reconstruction by Thuat (Tut))

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entelodonts were a group of large pig-like animals belonging order Artiodactyla. This group also holds whales, pigs, and hippos. These animals were rather chimeric in appearance. Most of them had Bison shaped bodies with tall neural spines that would have held muscle and fat in life. Daeodon was the largest of this group of animals. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Skeletal by bLAZZE92)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are two species of Daeodon known; D. shoshonensis, and D. humerosum. Daeodon material was first discovered and described in the 1800s, by famed paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope and were uncovered in the John Day Formation of Oregon. Cope’s infamous academic rival, Othniel Charles Marsh, later uncovered more material. However, due to their rivalry and the scientific practices of the time, Marsh named his specimens Dinohyus hollandi and Ammodon leidyanum. These were found in the Agate Springs quarry of Nebraska.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daeodon lived all across what is now the United States, but was not very abundant in the ecosystems it inhabited. This animal exhibited a large head; the skull could reach lengths of up to 3 feet, which held large teeth of varying shapes reminiscent of the maw of the modern Hippopotamus. Daeodon had blunt conical tusk-like canines at the front of its jaws and flat ridged chewing teeth at the back. This interesting dentition suggests the animal may have been an omnivore, shuffling through foliage and preying on small animals. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Reconstruction at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This hell-pig, as it has been popularized, had pig-like feet ending in a two-toed hoof and a large scapula that would have been the attachment point for lots of muscle. A part of what made it so strange, or ugly depending on how you look at it, were the cheekbones. This animal, and its entire family, had protruding cheek phalanges with blunted or rounded tips. These animals have often been reconstructed with these bony struts as crest-like protuberances; however, these were likely similar to the bony struts seen in an hippopotamus skull—that is, flesh, fat, muscle, and tendon covered much of these cheekbones and points in life and they may have even been attachment sites for facial tissue. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Mike Belknap; Although this reconstruction is more in line with what is considered accurate for the musculature and facial structure, it comes from a highly biased origin of creationism, so take it with a grain of salt = the image is good, but the beliefs behind it hold no water essentially)