Pharsophorus

Pharsophorus is an extinct genus of borhyaenoid sparassodont that inhabited South America during the mid-to-late Oligocene epoch. Originally, Pharsophorus was though to be a borhyaenid, and was even considered to be the direct ancestor of Borhyaena, Acrocyon, and Arctodictis, but later phylogenetic analyses have shown that it is not a member of the Borhyaenidae and is only more distantly related to these forms. Remains of Pharsophorus are known from the provinces of Mendoza, Santa Cruz, and Chubut in Argentina, as well as the fossil site of Salla in western Bolivia. The species "Pharsophorus" antiquus, formerly assigned to this genus, was eventually made the type species of a separate genus Australohyaena.