Tayassu pecari

The white-lipped peccary is a species of peccary found in Central and South America and the only extant member of the genus Tayassu. Multiple subspecies have been identified. White-lipped peccaries are similar in appearance to pigs, but with some distinct differences. Males don't have upward-pointing tusks, and both males and females are covered in dark hair. The range of T. pecari, which extends from Mexico to Argentina, has become fragmented, and the species's population is declining overall. They can be found in a variety of habitats. Social animals, white-lipped peccaries typically forage in large groups, which can have as many as 300 peccaries.

Tayassu pecari

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
white-lipped peccaryPBDB
Sits inside
TayassuPBDB
Diet
herbivore, omnivorePBDB, for Tayassuidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Tayassuidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Mass
32.5 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 32 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 28 of 32 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 32 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 17 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

32 occurrences of Tayassu pecari on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

32 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Tezanos Pinto — 31.82°S, 62.11°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°WCapadare — 10.86°N, 68.59°WEl Cantil — 10.12°N, 63.48°WQuerecual — 10.13°N, 64.47°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tayassu pecari has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tayassu pecari and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Tayassu pecari and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

270 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Tayassu pecari, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 32 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Tayassu pecari

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tayassu pecari spiradens · USNM:MAMM:USNM 406851

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTayassu through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Link 1795)