Description

Oreodont Skeleton Situ Plaque measures 23×15 inches. Oreodont Skeleton Situ Plaque is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in the USA. Item requires crating for shipping. Please call 509-951-3557 for shipping quote.

Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni is sometimes called oreodonts or ruminating hogs, is an extinct superfamily of prehistoric cud-chewing artiodactyls with short faces and fang-like canine teeth. As their name implies, some of the better known forms of Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni were generally hog-like, and the group has traditionally been placed within the Suina (pigs, peccaries and their ancestors), though some recent work suggests they may have been more closely related to camels.

Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni means mountain teeth, referring to the appearance of the molars. Most oreodonts were sheep-sized, though some genera grew to the size of cattle. They were heavy-bodied, with short four-toed hooves and comparatively long tails.

The Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni looked rather pig or sheep-like, but features of their teeth indicate they were more closely related to camelids.

They were most likely woodland and grassland browsers, and were widespread in North America during the Oligocene and Miocene. Later forms diversified to suit a range of different habitats. For example Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni had adaptations suggesting a semiamphibious lifestyle, similar to that of modern hippos.

The Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni was a diverse group of stocky prehistoric mammals that grazed amid the grasslands, prairies, or savannas of North and Central America throughout much of the Cenozoic era.

First appearing 48 million years ago during the warm Eocene epoch of the Paleogene period, the Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni dominated the American landscape 34 to 23 Million years ago during the dry Oligocene epoch, but they disappeared 4 Million years ago during the colder Pliocene epoch of the late Neogene period.

Today, Oreodont or Merycoidodon culbertsoni fossil jaws and teeth of the Oreodonta are commonly found amid the Oreodon beds or White River fauna of the White River badlands in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Many oreodont bones have also been reported at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon.

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Additional information

Weight 20 lbs
Dimensions 25 × 15 × 4 in
Oreodont Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Suborder: Tylopoda
Superfamily: †Merycoidodontoidea
Conservation Status: Extinct