Entelodon is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Entelodontidae endemic to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 from the early Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

 through Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 living 37.2—28.4 mya, existing approximately .

Entelodon is a typical entelodont, in that it was a cow-sized bunodont artiodactyl with a large, pig-like head with tremendous teeth and wart-like tubercules on the mandibles. It is one of four entelodont genera native to Eurasia, the other two being the primitive Eoentelodon

Eoentelodon

Eoentelodon is a small, primitive entelodont, assigned as such by Carroll , from the Middle Eocene of China. It was a very small entelodont, about the size of a modern pig, and was slightly smaller than its North American counterpart, Brachyhyops.Eoentelodon was synonymized subjectively with...

of late Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

 China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Proenteledon of middle Eocene Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 and the gigantic Paraentelodon

Paraentelodon

Paraentelodon is an extinct entelodont from the Late Oligocene of Eurasia.It was very similar in size and form to the giant entelodont, Daeodon, of early Miocene North America. Some researchers suggest that it was either ancestral to, or shared an ancestor with Daeodon...

of mid to late Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 Central Asia. It was 2.1m tall, 3m long and around 1000kg

Etymology

The generic name is a compound word of the Greek words enteles, meaning "complete" or "perfect", and odontos, meaning "teeth". Thus, "complete" or "perfect teeth" refers to the complete bunodont dentition of (3-1-4-3/3-1-4-3)

Taxonomy

Entelodon was named by Aymard (1846) [type European E. magnum, not the same as Elotherium magnum; see Effinger 1998 Type species: E. magnus and not magnum ]. Its type is Entelodon magnus. It was assigned to Entelodontidae by Aymard (1848) and Carroll (1988).

In popular culture

Entelodon was featured in the third episode of the popular BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 documentary Walking with Beasts

Walking with Beasts

Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part television documentary miniseries, produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom, narrated by Kenneth Branagh. In North America it has been retitled Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, and the original Discovery Channel broadcast was narrated by Stockard Channing...

. In the program, the narrator always calls the creatures "Entelodont

Entelodont

Entelodonts, sometimes nicknamed hell pigs or terminator pigs, is an extinct family of pig-like omnivores endemic to forests and plains of North America, Europe, and Asia from the middle Eocene to early Miocene epochs , existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:Entelodontidae was named by Richard...

s", instead of the specific genus name.