Prehistoric "Pig" Found In Amarillo

Workers excavating for the construction of a new building at the Amarillo Pantex plant, the only facility in the United States for the assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons, made a scientific discovery last week. They discovered bones from a prehistoric animal. To their credit, they temporarily stopped construction and notified the plant's historian, Monica Graham.

Ms. Graham contacted West Texas A&M geology professor Dr. Gerald Schultz. They then teamed with a wildlife biologist to excavate the bones -- which turned out to be the remains of a platygonus. The platygonus is an extinct cousin of modern peccaries (or javelinas). Dr. Schultz said the bones could be as late as 11,000 years old or as early as 23 million years ago.

I used the term "pig" in the title above, but in actuality peccaries and pigs are not really related. Pigs were brought to America by humans from Europe, and have a different ancestor than the platygonus (ancestor of peccaries). The peccary is actually, believe it or not, related closer to the hippopotamus than to Old World (European) pigs.

While the platygonus is an ancient species, having originated around 23 million years ago, I find it interesting that they survived long enough to have been around when North America had a human population (as it surely did 11,000 years ago). This ancient animal could have been hunted by early Americans.