7.8" Juvenile Archaeotherium Jaws - Large Oligocene Predator

This is a beautifully prepared jaw of Archaeotherium mortoni, a large Oligocene predator. It was collected from the Brule Formation of Wyoming and at 7.8" long it would have come from a juvenile of this "cow sized" , predatory mammal.

Archaeotherium is a rare component of the White River fauna and the teeth in this beastly jaw are in excellent condition.



Archaeotherium was about 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) tall at the shoulder and around 2 m (6 ft 7 in) long and weighing around 270 kg (600 lb). Although superficially pig-like, Archaeotherium, along with all other entelodonts, was more closely related to anthracotheres, hippopotamuses, and whales. Evidence from the Wyoming Dinosaur Center suggests that the omnivorous Archaeotherium, like many modern predatory mammals, kept caches of food for times when their hunting was less successful.