Pyrotheriidae
Pyrotheriidae is the only family in the order Pyrotheria, provided one does not include the Paleocene genus, Carodnia. These extinct, elephant-like ungulates include the genera Baguatherium, Carolozittelia, Griphodon, Propyrotherium, and Pyrotherium. Fossils of the family have been found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

Richard Haddad · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- PyrotheriaPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Pyrotheria
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 14 million years on record.
The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.
14 occurrences of Pyrotheriidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
14 occurrencesThese are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
5 formations
- El Milagro Formation2
- Sarmiento Formation2
- Las Chacras Formation2
- Geste Formation · Pastos Grande Group1
- Trujillo Formation1
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The named rock units Pyrotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Pyrotheriidae and its relatives
EoceneWhere Pyrotheriidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.
Found in the same rock
90 taxa- Propyrotherium saxeum7 sites
- Notoungulata3 sites
- Periphragnis3 sites
- Astraponotus2 sites
- Baguatherium jaureguii2 sites
- Eohyrax2 sites
- Eomorphippus obscurus2 sites
- Guilielmoscottia plicifera2 sites
- Litopterna2 sites
- Pseudeutatus depictus2 sites
- Pseudhyrax eutrachytheroides2 sites
- Acoelohyrax sigma1 site
- Antofagastia1 site
- Antofagastia turneri1 site
- Apeirodon sorianoi1 site
- Archaeohyrax1 site
- Astegotheriini1 site
- Astegotherium1 site
- Astrapotheriidae1 site
- Barrancatatus rigidus1 site
- Boidae1 site
- Bonapartherium serrensis1 site
- Bryanpattersonia nesodontoides1 site
- Bryanpattersonia sulcidens1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Pyrotheriidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
8 references- Reconstruction of the dentition of Propyrotherium saxeum Ameghino, 1901 (Mammalia, Pyrotheria): taxonomic and phylogenetic implications4
- Eocene mammals from volcaniclastic deposits of the Somun Cura Plateau: biostratigraphic implications for north Patagonia Paleogene2
- A new Pre-Deseadan Pyrothere (Mammalia) from northern Peru and the wear facets of molariform teeth of Pyrotheria2
- The beginning of the age of mammals in South America. Part II2
- New observations and reinterpretation on the enigmatic taxon Colombitherium (Pyrotheria, Mammalia) from Colombia1
- Paleogene faunal assemblage from Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca Province, Argentina)1
- A primitive pyrothere (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the early Tertiary of Northwestern Venezuela1
- A specimen of Pseudostylops subquadratus Ameghino1
Each of the 14 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Pyrotheriidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Richard Haddad
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Pyrotheriidae was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPyrotheria through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1889