Related Biomes
Long-nosed Peccary
Long-nosed peccary, Mylohyus nasutus
Peccaries are New World relatives (familly Tayassuidae) of the Old World true pigs (family Suidae). They can easily be distinguished from true pigs by the fact that their upper canines (tusks) point downward, whereas the tusks of true pigs curve upward. The long-nosed peccary is one of two species that were present in the U.S. Midwest during the last ice age, and both species have since become extinct. Currently, only the collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) remains in the U.S., and its range is restricted from Arizona and Texas south to Argentina.
Mounted skeleton of a long-nosed peccary, Mylohyus nasutus, from Friesenhahn Cave Texas. On display at the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin.
Height: 0.75 m (2.5 ft)
Weight: 67.7 kg (149 lb); Mendoza et al. 2006
Physical Description:
Long-nosed peccaries had a long, slender muzzle and jaw and were about the size of a small white-tailed deer. Unlike modern pigs (Suidae) their upper incisors, or tusks, grow downwards. Their limbs were longer and more slender than Flat-headed peccaries. The eye orbits are located high and far back on the skull, suggesting keen eyesight. Morphologically, they are most similar to the modern white-lipped peccary (Tayassu peccari).
Little is known about the diet of long-nosed peccaries. Most paleontologists believe these animals were omnivorous, their diet dominated by plant matter, but occasionally supplemented by small animals (e.g., eggs, mice, worms).
Unlike the flat-headed peccary, the long-nosed peccary was probably a solitary animal and did not frequent caves. As medium-sized omnivores, they would have occupied a niche shared by flat-headed peccaries and black bears. Only the black bear (Ursus americanus) survived.
During the last glacial, long-nosed peccaries were distributed throughout eastern North America with concentrations in Appalacia and Florida. Most fossil localities containing this species are found in the southern and south-eastern U.S., from west Texas (Fowlkes Cave) to Florida, and north to Pennsylvania (Frankstown Cave and Hollidaysburg Fissue). In the Midwest, Mylohyus occupied parkland or forested habitats (e.g., Kimmswick and Crankshaft Cave in Missouri; Prairie Creek in Indiana).
Mylohyus nasutus is uncommon in deposits post-dating the Last Glacial Maximum, although direct-dated remains of a single Mylohyus molar suggests that the species survived until the terminal Pleistocene near Sheridan Cave, Ohio (11,860+/-40 14C BP) (Tankersley 2011).
Lundelius, E. 1961. Mylohyus nasutus: Long-nosed Peccary of the Texas Pleistocene. Bulletin of the Texas Memorial Museum, vol. 1.
Mendoza, M., Janis, C. M., Palmqvist, P. 2006. Estimating the body mass of extinct ungulates: a study on the use of multiple regression. Journal of Zoology 270(1):90-101
Tankersley, Kenneth B. 2011. Evaluating the Co-occurrence of Platygonus compressus and Mylohyus nasutus at Sheriden Cave, Wyandot County, Ohio. Current Research in the Pleistocene 28:173-175.
Related Animals:
