Liarthrus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of mammals}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Late Oligocene (Deseadan
~{{Fossil range|29|21}}

| taxon = Liarthrus

| authority = Ameghino, 1895

| type_species = Liarthrus copei

| type_species_authority = Ameghino, 1895

}}

Liarthrus ("smooth joint")Palmer, T. S. (1904). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WdnPAAAAMAAJ&dq=Liarthrus&pg=PA375 Index generum mammalium: a list of the genera and families of mammals] (No. 23). US Government Printing Office. is a genus of astrapotheriid mammal known from the Late Oligocene (Deseadan SALMA, around 29–21 mya) Sarmiento Formation of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It was described by the Argentine paleontologist Florentino Ameghino in 1895 along with several other genera from the "Pyrotherium Beds", which were then believed to date to the Cretaceous period.Ameghino, F. (1910). Geologia, paleogeografia, paleontologia, antropologia de la reública Argentina. la Nación. Ameghino described Liarthus on the basis of fragmentary specimen, consisting of only a right astragalus (tarsal bone), premolar 4, and an incomplete premolar from the upper jaws.Ameghino, F. (1895). Première contribution à la connaissance de la faune mammalogique des couches à Pyrotherium. PE Coni. Only one species was described, L. copei, the species name honoring the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who lived at the same time as Ameghino. Liarthrus was synonymized with the other astrapothere Parastrapotherium in 1914 by American mammalogist Frederic Loomis,Loomis, F. B. (1914). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sIEZAAAAYAAJ&dq=loomis+deseado&pg=PA1 The Deseado Formation of Patagonia]. Rumford Press. though it was revalidated by a 2008 analysis of Parastrapotherium.Kramarz, A. G., & Bond, M. (2008). [http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S0002-70142008000300003&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt Revisión de Parastrapotherium (Mammalia, Astrapotheria) y otros astrapoterios Deseadenses de Patagonia]. Ameghiniana, 45(3), 537–551. Liarthrus was a herbivorous mammal, being an astrapothere, which had large tusks on their skulls and mandibles in addition to a large body size.Cerdeño, E., & Vera, B. (2017). [https://bioone.org/journals/Ameghiniana/volume-54/issue-3/AMGH.14.11.2016.3052/New-Anatomical-Data-on-iPyrotherium-i-Pyrotheriidae-from-the-Late/10.5710/AMGH.14.11.2016.3052.short New anatomical data on Pyrotherium (Pyrotheriidae) from the late Oligocene of Mendoza, Argentina]. Ameghiniana, 54(3), 290–306.