Tayassu

Tayassu is a genus of peccary. The only extant species is the white-lipped peccary. Collared peccary is suggested now as a possible member of same genus. At least one extinct species, T. edensis, has been placed in the genus. Many sources regard Dicotyles as a synonym. As of December 2025, the Paleobiology Database regarded Dicotyles as a separate genus.

Tayassu

-JvL- from Netherlands · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Sits inside
TayassuiniPBDB
Diet
herbivore, omnivorePBDB, for Tayassuidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Tayassuidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 45 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 45 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 38 of 45 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 45 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Tayassu 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

45 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

10 formations

Mesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°WMt. Eden — 33.90°N, 117.00°WLuján — 37.00°S, 60.38°WTezanos Pinto — 31.82°S, 62.11°WSanta Vitória — 33.74°S, 53.37°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°WSuelo — 28.60°S, 59.03°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tayassu has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tayassu and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Tayassu and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

345 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Tayassu, 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

29 references

Each of the 45 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. 17 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

Credit
-JvL- from Netherlands
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tayassu sp. · UWBM:Mammalogy:UWBM:Mamm:85991

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 itTayassuini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fischer 1814