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Pyrotherium
''Pyrotherium'' ('fire beast') is an extinct genus of South American ungulate, of the order Pyrotheria, that lived in what is now Argentina, during the Early Oligocene. It was named "Fire Beast" because the first specimens were excavated from an ancient volcanic ashfall.
The vaguely elephant-like ''Pyrotherium'' was 3 m (10 ft) long and 1.50 m (5 ft) tall at the shoulders, with a weight up to 3500 kg (3.85 tons) for ''P. romeroi''. A recently discovered species, ''P. macfaddeni'' was smaller, at under 900 kg (1 ton) in weight. 〔http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MammalPaleontology/message/332〕 The living animal's heavy body was carried by robust legs. ''Pyrotherium'' also had a short trunk on its snout, and two pairs of flat, forward-facing tusks in the upper jaw, with a single pair in the lower jaw.
Possible South American descendants of the xenungulates, the complete study of the tarsus of ''Pyrotherium'' fails to support this relationship. In one study, derived characters were not seen in any mammal examined except the embrithopod ''Arsinoitherium'' from the Cenozoic of Africa. Whether this is due to common ancestry, or to the unusual mode of locomotion used by these animals (graviportal and plantigrade) remains to be seen.
== References ==
pt:Pyrotheria
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