The last section of the Artiodactyla is that of the Suina, represented at the present day by the pigs (Suidae), and the hippopotamuses (Hippopotamidae), and in past times by the Anthracotheriidae, in which may probably be included the Elotheriidae.
The Suidae include the Old World pigs (Suinae) and the American peccaries (Dicotylinae), and are characterized by the snout terminating in a fleshy disk-like expansion, in the midst of which are perforated the nostrils; while the toes are enclosed in sharp hoofs, of which the lateral ones do not touch the ground.
For the genus Elotherium, of the Lower Miocene and Upper Oligocene of both hemispheres, which is often placed next the Suidae, see ARTIODACTYLA.
PECCARY, the name of the New World representatives of the swine (Suidae) of the E.
As in all Suidae the snout is truncated, and the nostrils are situated in its flat, expanded, disk-like termination.
The pigs (Suidae) and the hippopotamuses (Hippopotamidae) are essentially Old World groups, the former of which has alone succeeded in reaching America, where it is represented by the collateral branch of the peccaries (Dicotylinae).