Animal Ancestry P2: The Pig from Hell

    Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the Animal Ancestry blog, where I tell you all about the theoretical ancestors of animals we know and love today!

    It's somehow already October, so you know what that means! Yes, Halloween, the holiday known for its traditions of hunting and devouring of sweets and horrific themes. Speaking of hunting, devouring, and horrific, today I will be talking about quite a scary animal, one you will definitely be grateful that it's extinct.

   

     Awww look at the wittle piggies! In their wittle pumpkin costumes! I wonder what their favorite candy is. Probably...I don't know...EVERYTHING. Not many know this, but all pigs, hogs, and boars are actually omnivores. Sure they love fruits and veggies like any normal herbivore, but they also love the occasional decomposing carcass every now and then. However, they don't come close to a real predator's instinctual desire for meat. Not anymore at least...

    About 20 million years ago in North America, a creature more vicious than a grizzly bear reigned supreme at the top of the food chain.  Dubbed the "Hell Pig" and "The Pig from Hell" by many, meet...the Entelodont.

    Entelodonts had the most overpowered set of teeth, with large canines and incisors on the front of the mouth along with strong premolars and molars in the back. All were used to pierce and tear into flesh while crushing bones and cartilage.

 Besides it’s massive skull, Enteledonts had a surprisingly light bone structure, making chasing after prey easy. However, most predators need to take down prey much larger than them, and rely on grabbing them with their claws and bring it down. Since Enteledonts had hooves, they used their sheer size to knock down its prey. Then, they would latch onto their heads or necks, crushing their skull or snapping their neck with their powerful jaws. Their prey included early horses, camels, and rhinos; all of which stood no chance against the monster.


If you'd like to see what that would've looked like, watch this clip from Natural Geographic's documentary on the beast. Viewer discretion is advised. 


https://drive.google.com/file/d/14ArSnfIEhEnyQ0R0xjx89TpYl4yWVS7V/view?usp=sharing 

(You'll have to copy and paste it into the search bar)

   Enteledonts abilities were tested when the dreadful Ice Age covered the Earth in a blanket of snow and ice. It didn't look like it was gonna end soon, so that means its adaptation time! Most animals now had to get bigger to cover more ground when finding food. Enteledonts were already ahead of the game apparently, now growing about 5x the size it previously was. It's bigger, it's badder, ladies and gentlemen, it's too much for LITERALLY EVERYTHING. Not a living thing could be prepared for such a dedicated killing machine with a desiring appetite for destruction like the Enteledont.



And that's all for this month! Don't forget to let me know what you think down below, and I'll see you next month! I'll probably talk about some giant bird or something for Thanksgiving so...see you soon ;)


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