The ancient giant pig with the horns on its head, the Kuban pig
On the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Pig is over, and the small partners have returned to work. Here the little dragon robber gives you a good old age and wishes everyone a good luck in the Year of the Pig! After the Spring Festival break, the little robber dragon also began to post. Since this year is the Year of the Pig, it must be to introduce the pigs of the ancient times, and the Year of the Pig must talk about the ancient giant pigs!
Pigs are the most familiar animals for humans and one of the most important animals for us, and without pigs we really don't know what the world would be like. Without pigs, there would be no roast suckling pig, sauce pig trotters, sweet and sour tenderloin, braised pork, Dongpo button meat, Jinhua ham, so terrible! We all know that domestic pigs were domesticated from wild boars, which evolved from more primitive pigs. There have been some big guys in the evolutionary history of the pig family, and the Cuban pig is one of the representatives.
Fossil pigs from the Old World
It should be said that the distribution of The Kuban pig is still quite wide, extending from Asia and Europe to the west to Africa. The earliest Kuban pig fossil was found in Gansu, China, in 1928. The fossil's discoverer, paleontologist Pearson, studied the fossil and considered it to belong to the more primitive pig class, and classified it as a genus of Listriodon, which had been found in Europe.
Image note: Fossil line diagram of the skull and mandible of the Kuban pig, picture from the Internet
By the 1950s, Soviet paleontologists had discovered fossils of ancient pig skulls and mandibles in the Caucasus. After detailed research, paleontologists determined that the fossil pig found in the Caucasus was a completely new genus, so in 1955 the genus Kubanochoerus was established, with the name of the genus from the discovered Kuban (Russian: Кубань). The model breed name of the Kuban pig is the stout Kuban pig (K. Kuban pig). robustus), the species name represents the strength of its fossils.
Illustration: The Kuban area where the Fossil of the Kuban pig was found, located on the east coast of the Black Sea, is imaged from the Internet
In addition to the model species, there are seven species under the genus Kuban, among which the fossil first found in Gansu, China, was renamed the Great Kuban Pig (K. Kuban Pig). gigas, also known as giant Kuban pig), the fossil of the Kuban pig is mainly from central Asia, of which Gansu in China is the most abundant.
The "unicorn" among pigs
Of all the kinds of Kuban pigs, the largest is the Large Kuban pig. The Great Kuban pig is much larger than today's pigs, with a shoulder height of 1.2 meters, a body length of about 2.5 meters, a weight of between 500 and 850 kilograms, and a tall and stout appearance.
Illustration: A restoration of the Kuban pig, the picture is from the network
Illustration: Comparison of the size of the stout Kuban pig of the model species with that of humans, the picture comes from the network
The first time you see a Kuban pig, you will find that it is not the same as the "pig" in our impression, the biggest difference is that there is a "horn" on the head, so it is also called "unicorn". The "horns" on the head of the Kuban pig are located on the midline of the head and grow forward from above the eyes. This "horn" of the Kuban pig is not very long, the front is not sharp, it should not be an attack weapon, and the researchers believe that the "horn" of the Kuban pig may have been used in fights between the same kind.
Image note: The "horn" on the head of the Cuban pig, picture from the network
Illustration: The head of the Kuban pig, notice that there are small protrusions above its eyes, the picture comes from the network
In addition to the "one-horn" on the top of the head, the Kuban pig also has small protrusions above its eyes, like two miniature horns. The entire head of the Kuban pig is long, with a soft pig nose in front of it, and the mouth has protruding and sharp canine teeth, forming fangs. Behind the head of the Kuban pig is a short, thick neck and a strong body, and under the body are four long and powerful legs. Don't look at the Kuban pigs are big and fat, they are actually fast, and when they run, they are fierce.
Photo note: The skeleton of the Kuban pig, located in the Shanghai Museum of Natural History
The World of The Kuban Pig
The Kuban pig lived between 16 million and 7.3 million years ago during the Miocene and spread across Asia, Europe and Africa. What kind of world do Kuban pigs live in? Take the largest Kuban pig as an example, which belongs to the shovel-toothed elephant fauna, representing species protection such as shovel-toothed elephant, incarcerated elephant, angel horse, half-dog, half-bear, Tunggur hyena and so on.
Image note: Shoveltooth elephant fauna, image from the web
Fossils of the shovel-toothed elephant fauna are mainly from today's Hezheng region of Gansu, which was much warmer and wetter than it is today during the Miocene period, and belonged to the savanna landform, with many lakes or rivers on the ground. The big Kuban pigs living in this environment are omnivores, and they not only eat plants, but also do not refuse meat that is delivered to their mouths.
Illustration: Kuban pigs living in groups, picture from the internet
Image note: The Kuban pig's main natural enemy, the half-bear, picture from the network
Don't look at the Kuban pigs, but they face the threat of ferocious carnivores like Hemicgon and Tungul hyenas, so they must live in groups, just like today's wild boars.
Latest research
In 2018, Chinese paleontologists named the latest species in the genus Kuban, the K. Small Kuban pig, based on fossils found in Gansu. parvus）。 While naming the little Kuban pig, paleontologists have explored the evolution and differentiation relationship of the Kuban pig in depth, and found that the Kuban pig living in China (including the small Kuban pig, the large Kuban pig, the blue field Kuban pig and the Minhe Kuban pig) are more evolved types, and their ancestors are from Africa; the blue field Kuban pig and the stout Kuban pig may be the same species as the large Kuban pig; the Kuban pig may only have "horns" on the head of male individuals.
Photo note: Fossil of the little Kuban pig, pictured from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The new study in 2018 provides us with new information to understand the Kuban pig, and more knowledge about this animal needs to be continued by paleontologists to continue to discover and study.
The existence of the Kuban pig did not make the pig family rise to the top of the food chain, but its domineering appearance still made it one of the largest pigs ever!
Resources:
1.Bishop LC (2010) Suoidea. In: Werdelin L, Sanders WJ, editors. Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 821–842.
2.PICKFORD, M., GABUNIA, L., MEIN, P., MORALES, J. & AZANZA, B. 2000. The Middle Miocene Mammalian site of Belometchetskaya, North Caucasus: an important biostratigraphic link between Europe and China. - Géobios 33 (2): 257-267, Lyon.
3.Hou, Su-Kuan, and Tao Deng. 2019. A new species of Kubanochoerus (Suidae, Artiodactyla) from the Linxia Basin, Gansu Province, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica in press. .
Image / Network (Intrusion and Deletion)
Text / Paleontological Exploration (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Paleontological exploration