A side-effect of a dodgy memory

[james_davis_nicoll]

I keep re-discovering entelodonts AKA "Hell Pigs", a pig-like apex predator that went extinct about 16 million years ago.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Okay, I googled.

And people wonder why I'm insomniac.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It seems to me cetaceans had an alarming land-dwelling predator in their lineage but darned if I can find it.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

This becomes a more or less worrying image depending largely on where you keep rediscovering them; behind the cushions on the sofa would really be quite alarming.

[alyxyn.livejournal.com]

Win.

[dsrtao]

If they keep showing up in your back yard, you may be in a Simak novel. Check for an unusually friendly dog and a telepathic arboreal alien.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

This leads me to wonder if I couldn't write a near-future contemporary in which one of the character, a broker of some stripe, is allowed to use the phrase "I hedge hate-hogs."

Just because my daughter was a serious Sonic the Hedgehog fan and was especially fond of that line when she was younger.

There is no better motive for writing than amusing one's own children.

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

In Soviet Miocene, bacon eats you.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Wooo! \m/ "War Pigs", man! *head-bobs*

-- Steve blames Tim Schaefer's upcoming release for this outburst of mëtalism.

[dhole.livejournal.com]

Andrewsarchus has teeth similar to those of early whales, IIRC, though I'm not at all sure where it fits in the family tree.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

With most people I've not had that reaction, but, well, if it was possible to find a hell-pig in one's sofa at all, James would be the person I'd vote for "Most Likely To".

[jamesenge.livejournal.com]

And robots!

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

In fact, it would seem nigh-inevitable.

[bwross.livejournal.com]

Looks like there's some good eating on one of those things. According to Wikipedia, they had the shoulder height of a moose and 6 times the mass. Moose is already a very lean meat, so these things must have a lot of bulk and a solid skeleton to support it. You'd probably need around 6-9 deep freezers to hold the meat.

[avram]

And they'd be thinking the same thing about us.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you thinking of ambulocetus?

[Pix & stuff, here: http://olduvaigeorge.com/2006/12/01/march-of-the-hippoartiowhales/ ]

Or maybe this critter: http://www.hmnh.org/archives/2009/02/04/maiacetus-innus/ ?

But if you go back far enough, they aren't very alarming at all:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7150627.stm

FWIIW,

TSM_in_TethysToronto

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWwqYF7B5U

(Not suitable for the squeamish ...).

TSM_in_Toronto

roll for damage

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

BWAAHAAA! This big boy is definitely going into my next campaign.

[(Anonymous)]

Under the cushions or on the bed, probably a William Hope Hodgson story - man had a problem about pigs...

Bruce