Pharsophorus is an extinct genus of borhyaenoid Sparassodonta that inhabited South America during the Oligocene epoch.[ Pharsophorus at Fossilworks.org]
Taxonomy
Originally,
Pharsophorus was thought to be a
Borhyaenidae, and was even considered to be the 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 Sarmiento Formation of the provinces of
Mendoza Province, Santa Cruz, and
Chubut Province in Argentina, as well as the
Salla Formation at 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.
