109-4 Size-Dependent Feeding Behaviors in Archaeotherium, the North American “Hell Pig”

Session: Working Up an Apatite: Teeth as Paleo -Ecological and -Climatological Archives (Posters)

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Abstract:

Archaeotherium was an entelodont that persisted through major global environmental changes for over 14 million years (≈37-23 mya), yet their paleoecology remains poorly understood. Here, dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is used to reconstruct the dietary paleobiology of multiple Archaeotherium species and morphotypes, to offer new insights into their dietary strategies and ecological roles. DMTA measures surface-texture features including complexity (Asfc) which indicates consumption of brittle items like bone, nuts, and woody-browse, and textural fill volume (Tfv) which reflects surface-feature depth and indicates degree of durophagy. Our results show that Archaeotherium exhibited substantial dietary variation at the genus level. However, when size is incorporated into the analysis, Archaeotherium reveals size-driven dietary partitioning. Two Archaeotherium morphotypes (the smaller-bodied “standard” form and the large-bodied “Subgenus A”) are represented in this study. The smaller-bodied forms have Asfc values similar to rooting boars (Sus), shearing peccaries (Protherohyus, Platygonus), and the felid Acinonyx jubatus, with Tfv values also statistically similar to Acinonyx jubatus. These results suggest a diet of softer foods with limited bone consumption. In contrast, the large-bodied forms exhibit significantly higher Asfc and Tfv values, which are statistically similar to the crushing peccary (Mylohyus) and feliforms (Panthera leo, Parahyaena brunnea, Crocuta crocuta, Hyaena hyaena) that exhibit moderate-to-high degrees of bone processing. These results are consistent with consumption of harder and/or more brittle foods, which could include nuts, woody-browse, and bone. As a whole, these results suggest that Archaeotherium occupied diverse ecological omnivorous niches, with dietary strategies being strongly influenced by body size. This ecological flexibility and dietary-partitioning may have contributed to their evolutionary persistence across dynamic paleoenvironments.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-11163

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