Peccaries are pig-like ungulates of the family Tayassuidae. They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North America. Peccaries usually measure between 90 and 130 cm in length, and a full-grown adult usually weighs about 20 to 40 kg. They represent the closest relatives of the family Suidae, which contains pigs and relatives. Together Tayassuidae and Suidae are grouped in the suborder Suina within the order Artiodactyla.
Suina is a suborder of omnivorous, non-ruminant artiodactyl mammals that includes the domestic pig and peccaries. A member of this clade is known as a suine. Suina includes the family Suidae, termed suids, known in English as pigs or swine, as well as the family Tayassuidae, termed tayassuids or peccaries. Suines are largely native to Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, with the exception of the wild boar, which is additionally native to Europe and Asia and introduced to North America and Australasia, including widespread use in farming of the domestic pig subspecies. Suines range in size from the 55 cm (22 in) long pygmy hog to the 210 cm (83 in) long giant forest hog, and are primarily found in forest, shrubland, and grassland biomes, though some can be found in deserts, wetlands, or coastal regions. Most species do not have population estimates, though approximately two billion domestic pigs are used in farming, while several species are considered endangered or critically endangered with populations as low as 100. One species, Heude's pig, is considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to have gone extinct in the 20th century.
The Chacoan peccary or tagua is the last extant species of the genus Catagonus; it is a peccary found in the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina. Approximately 3,000 remain in the world.
The collared peccary is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed) mammal in the family Tayassuidae found in North, Central, and South America. It is the only member of the genus Dicotyles. They are commonly referred to as javelina, saíno, taitetu, or báquiro, although these terms are also used to describe other species in the family. The species is also known as the musk hog. In Trinidad, it is colloquially known as quenk.
The white-lipped peccary is a species of peccary found in Central and South America and the only member of the genus Tayassu. Multiple subspecies have been identified. White-lipped peccaries are similar in appearance to pigs, but covered in dark hair. The range of T. pecari, which extends from Mexico to Argentina, has become fragmented, and the species's population is declining overall. They can be found in a variety of habitats. Social animals, white-lipped peccaries typically forage in large groups, which can have as many as 300 peccaries.
Catagonus is a genus of peccaries that contains the living Chacoan peccary, C. wagneri, and several extinct species. The genus has always been restricted to South America.
Stegomastodon is an extinct genus of gomphotheres. It ranged throughout North America from the Pliocene, to the Early Pleistocene. The former South American species have been synonymized with Notiomastodon platensis.
Platygonus is an extinct genus of herbivorous peccaries of the family Tayassuidae, endemic to North and South America from the Miocene through Pleistocene epochs, existing for about 10.289 million years. P. compressus stood 2.5 feet tall.
Xenorhinotherium is an extinct genus of macraucheniine macraucheniids, native to northern South America during the Pleistocene epoch, closely related to Macrauchenia of Patagonia. The type species is X. bahiense.
The John Day Formation is a series of rock strata exposed in the Picture Gorge district of the John Day River basin and elsewhere in north-central Oregon in the United States. The Picture Gorge exposure lies east of the Blue Mountain uplift, which cuts southwest–northeast through the Horse Heaven mining district northeast of Madras. Aside from the Picture Gorge district, which defines the type, the formation is visible on the surface in two other areas: another exposure is in the Warm Springs district west of the uplift, between it and the Cascade Range, and the third is along the south side of the Ochoco Mountains. All three exposures, consisting mainly of tuffaceous sediments and pyroclastic rock rich in silica, lie unconformably between the older rocks of the Clarno Formation below and Columbia River basalts above.
Suinae is a subfamily of artiodactyl mammals that includes several of the extant members of Suidae and their closest relatives – the domestic pig and related species, such as babirusas. Several extinct species within the Suidae are classified in subfamilies other than Suinae. However, the classification of the extinct members of the Suoidea – the larger group that includes the Suidae, the peccary family (Tayassuidae), and related extinct species – is controversial, and different classifications vary in the number of subfamilies within Suidae and their contents. Some classifications, such as the one proposed by paleontologist Jan van der Made in 2010, even exclude from Suinae some extant taxa of Suidae, placing these excluded taxa in other subfamilies.
Catonyx is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Scelidotheriidae, endemic to South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It lived from 2.5 Ma to about 10,000 years ago, existing for approximately 2.49 million years. The most recent date obtained is about 9600 B.P.
This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2012, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
Surameryx is an extinct genus of herbivorous artiodactyls originally described as belonging to the extinct family Palaeomerycidae. A single species, S. acrensis, was described from the Late Miocene of the Madre de Dios Formation, South America. It was originally interpreted as one of the few northern mammals that entered South America before the Pliocene. However, both its identification as a member of the family Palaeomerycidae and claims about its Miocene age were subsequently challenged.
This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2017, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
Catagonus metropolitanus is an extinct species of peccary known from the Pleistocene of Argentina.
Catagonus carlesi, or Parachoerus carlesi, is an extinct species of peccary that lived in Argentina during the Late Pleistocene.
Perchoerus is an extinct genus of suine from the Eocene and Oligocene of North America. Three species are known. While often considered to be a peccary, other studies have recovered it to be a basal suine outside of either peccaries or Suidae. The oldest known species of Perchoerus is P. minor, which was only the size of a house cat. It is known from skull and tooth material. The later P. nanus of the Orellan grew larger and is known from a skull and lower jaw. The latest and largest species was P. probus of the Oligocene. It was much larger and known from more remains than the other species.
Mcdonaldocnus is an extinct genus of nothrotheriid ground sloths that lived during the Middle Miocene and Early Pliocene of what is now Bolivia and Argentina. It was originally placed in the genus Xyophorus but was subsequently recognized as a distinct genus by Gaudin and colleagues in 2022. The authors reassigned the material of "Xyophorus" bondesioi, Xyophorusvillarroeli and Xyophorus sp. to Mcdonaldocnus. Fossils of Mcdonaldocnus have been found in the Cerro Azul Formation of Argentina.
