Phylogenetic Systematics of Peccaries (Tayassuidae: Artiodactyla) and a Classification of South American Tayassuids

Abstract

Tayassuidae is a family of pig-like Artiodactyla restricted to the New World. Despite its rich fossil history, they have received less attention from a taxonomic and phylogenetic perspective when compared to the Old World pigs, Suidae. In this study, we performed a computer assisted phylogenetic analysis using morphological and molecular data including fossil and extant Tayassuidae, using parsimony and Bayesian approaches. We recovered the monophyly of the family Tayassuidae, confirming previous proposals, as well as the monophyly of the subfamilies Hesperhyinae and Tayassuinae, and the genus Platygonus, which we placed in a new taxon of tribe level. The three living peccaries and a number of fossil species belong to a new, tribe level, monophyletic group. The genus Catagonus comes out as paraphyletic, leading us to propose to restrict the generic name to the type species, C. metropolitanus, and a new taxonomic arrangement for the remaining species previously included in it, revalidating the genera Brasiliochoerus and Parachoerus, and describing a new genus, Protherohyus, gen. nov.