Sus scrofa

The wild boar, also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is now one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world as well as the most widespread suiform. It has been assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its wide range, high numbers, and adaptability to a diversity of habitats. It has become an invasive species in part of its introduced range. Wild boars probably originated in Southeast Asia during the Early Pleistocene and outcompeted other suid species as they spread throughout the Old World.

Sus scrofa

Valentin Panzirsch · CC BY-SA 3.0 at · 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
wild boarPBDB
Sits inside
SusPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Suidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Suidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

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 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 120 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 120 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 102 of 120 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 17 of 120 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 20 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 20 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 57 occurrences774 ka – 11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

120 occurrences of Sus scrofa 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

120 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

5 formations

Cromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.91°N, 1.36°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°EYuanmou — 24.87°N, 100.94°EForest Bed — 52.49°N, 1.53°EGuxiangtun — 45.92°N, 127.40°E

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The named rock units Sus scrofa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 109 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sus scrofa and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sus scrofa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,001 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 119 sites for Sus scrofa, 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

77 references

Each of the 120 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. 65 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 content1

Picture of Sus scrofa

Credit
Valentin Panzirsch
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0 at
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No repository was searched for a 3D scan: the genus name is too short to search on without matching most of the record.

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 itSus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758