Platygonus

Platygonus is an extinct genus of peccary from North America.

Platygonus was larger than modern peccaries, at around 1 meter (3.3 ft) in body length, and had long legs, allowing it to run well. It also had a pig-like snout and long, carnivore-like tusks which were probably used to fend off predators. It had a complex digestive system, similar to that of a modern ruminant.

Platygonus was a gregarious animal and, like modern peccaries, traveled in packs. It ranged from southern Canada to Mexico and from California to Pennsylvania. Stratigraphically, it occurs throughout the Pleistocene (Calabrian), and as early as the Blancan in the Gelasian of the Pliocene.