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A large jaw from 2 million years ago, laughed discovered in the Umbrian Pantalla, brought to light the ancestor of our boar who has been living in Europe since 700 thousand years. Scientific name Sus strozzii, a larger species than wild boar, but probably with similar ecological adaptations.
The study, conducted by Dr. Marco Cherin of the Department of Physics and Geology of the University of Perugia and by researchers from the Universities of Turin, Sapienza of Rome, Glasgow and Bordeaux, has leads to the detailed description of the mandible, also through the use of tomographic surveys and three-dimensional virtual reconstructions (Figure 1). The jaw, about 35 cm long, belonged to a large male, among the largest ever reported in Eurasia not only for Sus strozzii, but for all other species of the Sus genus.
Research has confirmed that the separation between the African forms (which today include the Ilochero, the warthog and the potamocero) and the Eurasian forms (the genus Sus) appeared at the beginning of the evolutionary history of the Suinae, perhaps more than 10 million years ago. Within the Eurasian group, the most primitive species was the wild boar, probably native to Asia and only widespread in Europe relatively recently.
Sus arvernensis and Sus strozzii are part of a more derived group of pigs characterized by a particular morphology of the lower canines, represented today by the many species of "verrucous pigs" that live today. In the island and peninsular areas. of Southeast Asia. Asiatic roots, therefore, for one species, Sus strozzii, which has successfully occupied European ecosystems for more than a million years, leaving abundant fossil traces even in our country.
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