Abstract
III. THE artiodactyles, or even-toed ungulates, are the most abundant of the larger mammals now living, and the group dates back at least to the lowest eocene. In every vigorous primitive type which was destined to survive many geological changes, there seems to have been a tendency to throw off lateral branches which became highly specialised and soon died out because they are unable to adapt themselves to new conditions. The narrow path of the persistent suilline type throughout the whole tertiary is strewn with the remains of such ambitious offshoots, while the typical pig, with an obstinacy never lost, his held on in spite of catastrophes and evolution, and still lives in America to-day. The genus Platygonus is represented by several species, one of which was very abundant in the post-tertiary of North America, and is apparently the last example of a side branch, before the American suillines culminate in existing peccaries. The feet in this species are more specialised than in the living forms, and approach some of the peculiar features of the ruminants; as, for example, a strong tendency to coalesce in the metapodial bones. The genus Platygonus became extinct in the post-tertiary, and the later and existing species are all true peccaries. No authenticated remains of the genera Sus, Porcus, Phacochczrus, or the allied Hippotamus, the Old World suillines, have been found in America, although several announcements to that effect have been made.
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Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America 1 . Nature 16, 489–491 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016489a0