[Double Naught Spy]

There are some "indicators" of possible russian bloodlines bred into the feral stock. One is a sneaky little "hybrid tooth"...

http://www.hunting-in-texas.com/learnhogs.htm

Scroll down to the "how old is that pig" to see the tooth.

Oh please, hogdogs, not this garbage again. What you are talking about is in no way an indicator of possible Russian blood lines. We went through this in 2009 and it is no more true now than it was then. http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...ght=euro+tooth

You brought it up in that thread and I provided you with considerable information on why the presence or absence of the tooth may occur in pigs and it isn't because of being "Russian." It is because the tooth is vestigial, being lost over time genetically.

I seem to recall challenging you to prove that the tooth was an indicator of bloodline and nothing came from that. If you can prove it, it would be a real feather in your cap given it is a trait that nobody in the wildlife, biology, or veternary sciences is aware of and there are a considerable number of publications on domestic, wild and feral hogs.

By the way, have you noticed that the only references to the hybrid tooth all refer back to the same singluar source? What hog expert studied these hogs and made this unique determination? Do you know? Some online sources refer to your link, but your link and others go refence Texasboars.com and that article is found here ... http://www.texasboars.com/articles/aging.html

You get the same pictures and same text referencing the hybrid tooth as being diagnostic and neither source provides any justification as to how the author learned of this purported trait. It is simply stated as if it is fact from an unnamed source.

The claim is...

To begin there is one tooth that can distinguish something about a hog. The tooth in the picture to the left is not used in the aging process. Not all hogs will have this tooth. Only Hybrid Wild Boar will have this tooth. Hybrid is a cross breed between domestic hogs and the Eurasian Hog (Russian Boar). Domestic hogs or domestic feral hogs will not have this tooth.

Okay, it won't be present in domestic hog skulls. That is stated as a fact, right? So when you find hogs with this trait, you believe it proves that the hog is "Russian" or "Russian hybrid," right?

Here are domestic hog skulls with the tooth.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...QEwBA&dur=4446
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&s...1t:429,r:6,s:0
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&s...1t:429,r:0,s:0
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&s...t:429,r:3,s:15
http://www.etsy.com/listing/81789603...rofa-domestica
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks...c/pigpage.html

So how is it that all these domestic hogs have this tooth? The article says they won't have them. Well the article is WRONG. Texasboars is WRONG.

Now above I referred to the condition of the so-called "hybrid tooth" as being vestigial. Vestigial means it is an anatomical structure that no longer retains its original form or function and often is being lost evolutionarily over time. However, the actual absence of this tooth (or other dental structure) is called oligodontia. Here is a neat little abstract for an article discussing this very issue. You can order the whole article, but the abstract already tells us that the notion of the "hybrid tooth" as diagnostic is bogus.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/p335h22227u2023m/

Oligodonty (either bilateral or unilateral) was the most common anomaly, occurring in 9 wild (23.1% of the sample) and 15 (50%) domestic pigs. In 22 of the 24 individuals exhibiting oligodonty, this anomaly involved the lower first premolar (P1). Given the placement of P1, oligodonty may reflect a trend toward reduction of the dental arcade from the primitive eutherian number.

The tooth that you call a "hybrid tooth" is the lower adult P1 (first premolar).

I am afraid, sir, that you have succombed to a 'fact' that is nothing more than an internet myth that appears to have its origins on the Texasboars website for which there is no justification. The notion that this tooth reflects anything at all about bloodline or domesticity, being feral, being wild, or some hybrid thereof is without any merit and should not be used as an indicator of being of Russian, wild Eurasian, or hybrid feral-Russian/wild Eurasian ancestry. Its presence only means that the hog isn't suffering from oligodontia of that tooth.