The Pyrotherium: Prehistoric Bolivia

The pyrotherium was an odd pig elephant kind of animal. It was a plant eater that lived in South America. It was 8 to 10 feet about 3 meters long and weighed up to four tons. The Pyrotherium may have been related to elephants. The name Pyrotherium means "fire beast" because its fossils were first found near a volcano. In South America it lived in Bolivia and Argentina. The Pyrotherium looked like a pig with four small tusks and it had a short trunk. It lived between 29 and 23 million years ago. The predators of Pyrotherium were large carnivores. At the time, South America was an island so animals developed in stranger ways. Scientists have argued about whether it was actually a marsupial or not. Unfortunately, when South America became connected to North America, the stronger predators from the North conquered some of the animals in the South.