While long thought to be the sister-lineage to theChacoan peccary based on morphological similarities, a 2017 ancient DNA study which recoveredmitochondrial DNA fromPlatygonus found that all living peccaries are more closely related to each other than they are toPlatygonus. The estimated divergence betweenPlatygonus and all living peccaries was placed in the Miocene, around 22 million years ago.[5]
MostPlatygonus species were similar in size to modern peccaries especiallygiant peccary, at around 1 m (3.3 ft) in body length, and had long legs, allowing them to run well. They also had apig-like snout and longtusks which were probably used to fend off predators.[6]
Like modern peccaries,Platygonus is thought to have lived in herds. Their remains are particularly abundant in caves, suggesting that they regularly used them. A study on the population structure of a population ofP. compressus from Bat Cave, Missouri found that they had a similar demographic structure to modern peccaries, dominated by young adults, with a progressive attenuation of older adults due to predation and old-age, up to a maximum age of around 10 years.[7]Platygonus is thought to have consumed tough foliage like leaves and grass.[8]
During the Late Pleistocene,Platygonus was most common in Eastern North America, with records in the Great Plains and western North America being more sparse.[9] In South America,Platygonus ranged from Colombia to Argentina.[10]
Platygonus was named byJohn Lawrence LeConte in 1848 for fossils found in Pleistocene karst deposits in Illinois, which are now preserved in the Academy of National Sciences in Philadelphia.
The following species ofPlatygonus have been described:[2]
Fiedal, Stuart (2009). "Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction". In Haynes, Gary (ed.).American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology.Springer. pp. 21–37.doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_2.ISBN978-1-4020-8792-9.
Palmer, D., ed. (1999).The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions.ISBN978-1-84028-152-1.
