PYROTHERIUM 171 
The atlas is a massive vertebra with the anterior cotyles 
deeply excavated, especially on the upper side, so that, as 
Gaudry suggested, the head must have been carried low. 
The flat posterior cotyles face obliquely downward. The 
neural arch is light and without a spine or an opening for 
the vertebral artery. ‘The basal portion of the bone, how- 
ever, is excessively heavy and thick; the socket for the 
odontoid process not reaching to the middle of the basal 
bar. The neural canal is oval in section, being a good deal 
wider than high, and of small size. The transverse proc- 
esses are short, heavy projections, adapted to receive heavy 
muscles. On the ventral surface there projects from the 
posterior margin a strong hypophysis, which, as Gaudry 
has pointed out, is unusual, but which is a character of the 
atlas of the Palaeomastodon. 
The axis is a short, heavy bone, with the anterior cotyles 
facing obliquely upward, a small neural arch, no spine, 
and with a thick odontoid process, which has the form 
of a quarter of a hemisphere set onto the front of the 
centrum. 
Cervicals 3 and 4 are very short vertebrae with light 
neural arches and no spines. ‘The neural canal is fully 
three times as high as wide. ‘Thus it is entirely evident 
that the neck of Pyrotherium was extremely short, as is 
the case with elephants, which alone would not be sig- 
nificant, but coincides with many other elephant features. 
Gaudry described a lumbar vertebra which is also a short, 
heavy bone. Otherwise the vertebral column of Pyro- 
therium is unknown. 
The distal end of the scapula is described by Gaudry 
as indicating a short, heavy bone, with the glenoid cavity 
compressed so as to be about twice as long as it is wide. 
The coracoid is a short, blunt process. ‘The spine was 
broken off, but enough remained to indicate a moderately 
high spine, prolonged toward the humerus, and bent some- 
what forward. 
