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, whiqh, 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. 



