Pyrotheriidae
Pyrotheriidae | ||||||||||||
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Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
Eocene to Oligocene | ||||||||||||
48 to 21 million years | ||||||||||||
Locations | ||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name of the order | ||||||||||||
Pyrotheria | ||||||||||||
Ameghino , 1895 | ||||||||||||
Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
Pyrotheriidae | ||||||||||||
Ameghino, 1889 |
The Pyrotheriidae are a group of extinct mammals that lived in South America in the Eocene and Oligocene and showed certain similarities to the elephants . However, they were not related to these, but are counted among the South American ungulates .
features
Pyrotheriids were massive animals with columnar legs and short, broad toes. The head sat on a short neck and probably had a short trunk. The incisors (four upper and two lower) were shaped like tusks and protruded forward, the molars were very wide and designed for plant food.
Pyrotherium , the most famous representative of this genus, lived in the lower Oligocene and reached a length of 3 meters and a shoulder height of 1.5 meters. Its name, which means "fire animal", comes from the fact that the first fossils were found in deposits of volcanic ash. Other genera of Pyrotheria were Propyrotherium , Carlozittelia and Griphodon .
Internal system
Compared to other orders of the South American ungulates, the Pyrotheriidae were relatively poor in species and only lived for a relatively short period of time. They are probably closely related to the Xenungulata , another order of this group, or have even evolved from them.
The internal system according to McKenna & Bell:
- Order Pyrotheria Ameghino , 1895
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- Family Pyrotheriidae Ameghino , 1889
- Proticia Patterson , 1977
- Griphodon Anthony , 1924
- Carolozittelia Ameghino , 1901
- Colombitherium Hoffstetter , 1970
- Propyrotherium Ameghino , 1901
- Pyrotherium Ameghino , 1888
In particular, the inclusion of Proticia and Colombitherium in the Pyrotheria is viewed as critical due to the sparse finds and partly different tooth design.
literature
- Thomas S. Kemp: The Origin & Evolution of Mammals . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-850761-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell: Classification of mammals above the species level. Columbia University Press, New York, 1997, pp. 1-631 (p. 468)
- ↑ Guillerme Billet, Maëva Orliac, Pierre-Olivier Antoine and Carlos Jaramillo: New observations and reinterpretation on the enigmatic taxon Colombitherium (? Pyrotheria, Mammalia) from Colombia. Palaeontology 53 (2), 2010, pp. 319-325
Web links
- The Paleobiology Database: Pyrotheridae