Chasicotherium
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| Chasicotherium Fossil range: late Miocene |
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| †Chasicotherium rothi Ameghino, 1887 |
Chasicotherium rothi was a notoungulate of great size discovered in the Chasico Formation, in the stream homónimo of the Party of Villarino, Province of Buenos Aires, sediments which have an antiquity between 10 and 9 million years. It was an herbivore that preferred dry and open atmospheres. Like Toxodon and Trigodon, certain similarities to the hippopotamus and rhinoceros exists in its build, but there is no special relationship to either animal. This phenomenon is known like “adaptive convergence” or “parallel evolution”, which is to say, species that are unrelated to each other evolve similarities through adapting to very similar environments and occupying equivalent ecological niches. Most notable of Chasicotherium was its trait that, instead of having ungulates' phalanges or hooves in his legs, it had robust claws. Its weight was approximately one ton. It was a great herbivore of the Tertiary Pampas.
