Largest hell pig

The largest species of hell pig – also known as terminator pigs – was Daeodon shoshonensis (aka Dinohyus hollandi), which stood approximately 1.8–2.0 m at the shoulder, and possessed a skull measuring around 90 cm long but containing a disproportionately tiny brain no bigger than an orange. It belonged to the now-extinct entelodont family, and existed in a number of locations across what is now the USA in North America around 19 million years ago, during the early Miocene.

Known taxonomically as entelodonts, hell pigs or terminator pigs constituted a prehistoric taxonomic family of large pig-like ungulates (hoofed mammals) that originated during the middle Eocene about 37 million years ago and became extinct around 21 million years later. Traditionally, they have always been classed as relatives of modern-day pigs and peccaries, but very recently one team of researchers has proposed that in spite of their outwardly pig-like appearance, they may actually have been more closely related to hippopotamuses and whales.