Nyanzachoerus

Last updated

Nyanzachoerus
Temporal range: Miocene–Pliocene
Nyanzachoerus khinzir profile.png
Nyanzachoerus khinzir skull in lateral and ventral view
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Suidae
Subfamily: Tetraconodontinae
Genus: Nyanzachoerus
Leakey, 1958
Type species
Nyanzachoerus syrticus
Species
  • N. syrticus
  • N. kanamensis
  • N. devauxi
  • N. jaegeri
  • N. waylandi
  • N. pattersoni
  • N. tulotos
  • N. plicatus
  • N. australis
  • N. khinzir
  • N. nakaliensis

Nyanzachoerus is an extinct genus of the pig family (Suidae) belonging to the subfamily Tetraconodontinae. The several species of Nyanzachoerus lived in Africa from the Miocene to Pliocene. [1] [2]

Contents

Description

This was a large pig-like creature, larger than living species.

Fossils of males of these species show that they had large lumps on their muzzle and widely flaring cheekbones. Their tusks were only of moderate size. It can be assumed that the ornaments were used as a mating display.

Species

A total of 11 species have been described. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippopotamidae</span> Family of mammals

Hippopotamidae is a family of stout, naked-skinned, and semiaquatic artiodactyl mammals, possessing three-chambered stomachs and walking on four toes on each foot. While they resemble pigs physiologically, their closest living relatives are the cetaceans. They are sometimes referred to as hippopotamids.

<i>Sahelanthropus</i> Extinct hominid from Miocene Africa

Sahelanthropus tchadensis is an extinct species of the hominid dated to about 7 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. The species, and its genus Sahelanthropus, was announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed Toumaï, discovered in northern Chad.

<i>Orycteropus</i> Genus of mammals

Orycteropus is a genus of mammals in the family Orycteropodidae within Tubulidentata. The genus is known from Late Miocene to recent of Africa.

Australopithecus bahrelghazali is an extinct species of australopithecine discovered in 1995 at Koro Toro, Bahr el Gazel, Chad, existing around 3.5 million years ago in the Pliocene. It is the first and only australopithecine known from Central Africa, and demonstrates that this group was widely distributed across Africa as opposed to being restricted to East and southern Africa as previously thought. The validity of A. bahrelghazali has not been widely accepted, in favour of classifying the specimens as A. afarensis, a better known Pliocene australopithecine from East Africa, because of the anatomical similarity and the fact that A. bahrelghazali is known only from 3 partial jawbones and an isolated premolar. The specimens inhabited a lakeside grassland environment with sparse tree cover, possibly similar to the modern Okavango Delta, and similarly predominantly ate C4 savanna foods—such as grasses, sedges, storage organs, or rhizomes—and to a lesser degree also C3 forest foods—such as fruits, flowers, pods, or insects. However, the teeth seem ill-equipped to process C4 plants, so its true diet is unclear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Brunet (paleontologist)</span> French paleontologist and professor

Michel Brunet is a French paleontologist and a professor at the Collège de France. In 2001 Brunet announced the discovery in Central Africa of the skull and jaw remains of a late Miocene hominid nicknamed Toumaï. These remains may predate the earliest previously known hominid remains, Lucy, by over three million years; however, this conclusion is the subject of a significant controversy.

David Pilbeam is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and curator of paleoanthropology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suinae</span> Subfamily of mammals

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.

Vulpes riffautae is an extinct species of fox from the late Miocene of Chad. Fossils of V. riffautae potentially represent the earliest record of the dog family, Canidae, in the Old World. V. riffautae was intermediate in size between Rüppell's fox and the fennec fox. The Mandible is narrow and shallow. Just before the posterior root of p2, the symphysis terminates. The masseteric fossa is rather deep. The posterior smaller mental foramen is located below the posterior root of p3, while the anterior larger mental foramen is located between the root of p1 and the anterior root of p2.

Paracamelus is an extinct genus of camel in the family Camelidae. It originated in North America and crossed the Beringian land bridge into Eurasia during the Late Miocene, approximately 7.5–6.5 million years ago (Ma). It is the presumed ancestor to living camels of the genus Camelus.

<i>Lokotunjailurus</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Lokotunjailurus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) which existed in Kenya and Chad during the Miocene epoch.

The Djurab Desert is a desert in northern Chad. Part of the greater Sahara desert, it makes up much of the area of Chad's Borkou region.

<i>Notochoerus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Notochoerus is an extinct genus of very large pigs from the subfamily Tetraconodontinae. Fossils have been found in Africa, notably Uganda and Ethiopia.

<i>Stegodibelodon</i> Genus of mammals (fossil)

Stegodibelodon is an extinct genus of elephant or gomphothere from the Early Pliocene. It is known only from the Djourab region of northern Chad, where it was discovered by Franco-Chadian expeditions.

This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2014, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.

Amphiorycteropus is an extinct genus of mammals in the family Orycteropodidae within Tubulidentata. The genus is known from fossils dating from Middle Miocene to Early Pliocene, found in Africa, Asia and Europe.

<i>Cercopithecoides</i> Extinct genus of Old World monkeys

Cercopithecoides is an extinct genus of colobine monkey from Africa which lived during the latest Miocene to the Pleistocene period. There are several recognized species, with the smallest close in size to some of the larger extant colobines, and males of the largest species weighed over 50 kilograms (110 lb).

Tchadailurus is a genus of machairodontine felid from the late Miocene of Chad, Africa.

Sivaelurus is a fossil genus of felid containing only a single species, S. chinjiensis, which was described based on a partial right maxilla collected from the Chinji Formation in the Lower Siwaliks. The species was originally described by Guy Ellcock Pilgrim as Pseudaelurus chinjiensis in 1910, who later erected a new genus, Sivaelurus, for it in 1913.

<i>Serengetilagus</i>

Serengetilagus is a genus of lagomorph in the family Leporidae. It lived in the Pliocene of Kenya and Tanzania and the Late Miocene of Chad. Serengetilagus is the best-represented taxon from Laetoli, with approximately 34 percent of fossils in the Laetolil Beds attributed to this genus. Additional specimens from Angola, Morocco and Ukraine may also belong to this genus. It had a number of specific features unknown in other lagomorphs, such as a "missing" mesoflexid on its third premolar.

<i>Afrocygnus</i> Extinct genus of birds

Afrocygnus is an extinct genus of swan, which lived during the Late Miocene, and perhaps up to the Late Pliocene, in what is today North Africa. The only genus of swan known in Africa, aside from fragmentary Pleistocene remains found in East Africa and from occasional observations of vagrant European swans along the Mediterranean coast, it lived in what was during the Miocene a damp wetland spanning from Libya to Chad, alongside the Antracothere Libycosaurus and the early Homininae Sahelanthropus. The genus is considered as the sister taxon of the extant genus Cygnus. Fossils of the genus have been uncovered in the Sahabi Formation of Cyrenaica in Libya, and in the Toros-Menalla locality in the Djurab Desert of Northern Chad.

References

  1. National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals, Alan Turner, 2004
  2. Boisserie, Jean-Renaud; Souron, Antoine; Mackaye, Hassane Taïsso; Likius, Andossa; Vignaud, Patrick; Brunet, Michel (2014). "A New Species of Nyanzachoerus (Cetartiodactyla: Suidae) from the Late Miocene Toros-Ménalla, Chad, Central Africa". PLOS ONE. 9 (8): e103221. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j3221B. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103221 . PMC   4146473 . PMID   25162699.
  3. "MammalPaleontology : Message: Nyanzachoerus - A Pig of the Miocene and Pliocene". tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2022.