Tremacyllus
Tremacyllus is an extinct genus of hegetotheriids. It lived from the Late Miocene to the Late Pleistocene (~7-0.012 Ma) and its fossilized remains were discovered in South America. Description This animal was approximately the size of a hare, and both animals, while unrelated, must have been quite similar in appearance. Its skull had large orbits and strong lower incisors, similar to modern lagomorphs. It was probably a fast animal, with long legs, although proportionally shorter than other similar animals such as Pachyrukhos or extant lagomorphs. Compared to its relative Paedotherium, Tremacyllus was slightly smaller and possessed several distinctive characteristics in its dentition: its diastema was longer, the third upper molar was shorter or had the same size than the second molar, and the lower premolars were more overlapping and less molar-like. Furthermore, the symphysis of the mandible was shorter than in Paedotherium. Classification The genus Tremacyllus was described in 1891 by Florentino Ameghino for the species Pachyrukhos impressus, described by Ameghino himself a few years earlier. He named the type species Tremacyllus impressus, from the Pliocene and the Early Pleistocene, and several other species were later described by Ameghino himself, such as T. chapalmalensis, T. diminutus and T. novus, and