Entelodonts spent a lot of time fighting with their own kind. Many entelodont skulls have very severe wounds - some have gashes up to 2cm deep in the bone between the eyes - which can only have been inflicted by other entelodonts during fights. In fact it seems to have been quite common for one to fit another's head entirely in its mouth! The bony lumps all over their faces, like those of modern warthogs, were designed to protect delicate areas during these fights. This seems to have worked well, since even very scarred entelodonts show no damage to the protected eyes or nose.
Scientific name: Entelodontidae
Rank: Family
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Ugly mammals
Entelodon's skeleton can tell us a lot about early mammalian behaviour.
Entelodon's skeleton can tell us a lot about early mammalian behaviour.
Survival of the meanest
Giant, pig-like Entelodonts refuse to share a waterhole.
Giant, pig-like Entelodonts refuse to share a waterhole.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.
Entelodonts, sometimes nicknamed hell pigs or terminator pigs, are an extinct family of pig-like omnivores endemic to forests and plains of North America, Europe, and Asia from the middle Eocene to early Miocene epochs (37.2—16.3 mya), existing for approximately 20.9 million years.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.