Hyracotherium

Hyracotherium Fossil range: Early Eocene–Mid Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Mounted replica of a Hyracotherium vasacciensis skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	†Palaeotheriidae
Genus:	Hyracotherium Owen, 1841
Binomial name
Hyracotherium leporinum Owen, 1841
Synonyms
?Eohippus Marsh, 1876

Hyracotherium (pronounced HIGH-rack-oh-THEE-ree-um) ("Hyrax-like beast") (also known as Eohippus or The Dawn Horse) was a genus of very small (averaging about 60 cm in length) perissodactyl ungulates that lived in the woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere, with species ranging throughout Asia, Europe, and North America during the early Tertiary Period and the Early to Mid Eocene Epoc, about 60 to 45 million years ago.^[1] This small, dog-sized animal is the oldest know horse and was once considered to be the earliest known member of the Equidae^[2] before the type species was reclassified as a palaeothere, of a perissodactyl family related to both horses and brontotheres. The species is now extinct.

Discovery

Restoration by Heinrich Harder

The first fossils of this genus was found in England and described by the paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841. Suspecting that his species was a hyrax due to its teeth, but lacking parts of the skeleton, Owen called it a "Hyrax-like beast" and placed it in the new genus Hyracotherium. In 1876 in America Othniel C. Marsh found a full skeleton, which he placed in another new genus, Eohippus ("dawn horse"). When it became apparent that the two genera were likely one and the same, Eohippus for a time became a synonym of Hyracotherium, the genus with the earlier date of publication.

Description

Hyracotherium averaged 2 feet (60 cm) in length and 8 to 14 inches (20 cm) high at the shoulder and weighed about 50 pounds. It had 4 hoofed toes on each front foot and 3 hoofed toes on each hind foot. Each toe had a pad on its underside, similar to those of a dog. It had a primitive, short face with eye sockets in the middle and a short diastema (the space between the front teeth and the cheek teeth). The skull was long, having 44 long-crowned teeth. Although it had low-crowned teeth, the beginnings of the characteristic horse-like ridges on the molars can be seen. Hyracotherium is believed to have been a grazing herbivore that ate primarily soft leaves as well as some fruits and nuts and plant shoots.^[3]

Evolutionary role

It is believed by some scientists that the Hyracotherium was not only ancestral to the horse, but to other perissodactyls such as rhinos and tapirs.^[4] It is now regarded as a paleothere, rather than a horse proper, but this is only true of the type species, H. leporinum.^[5][6] Most other species of Hyracotherium are still regarded as equids, but they have been placed in several other genera: Arenahippus, Minippus, Pliolophus, Protorohippus, Sifrhippus, Xenicohippus, and even Eohippus.^[6] At one time, Xenicohippus was regarded as an early brontothere. The main stream of horse evolution occurred on the North American Continent.

Common misconception on size

In elementary level textbooks, Hyracotherium is commonly described as being "the size of a small Fox Terrier", which is actually about twice the size of the Hyracotherium. This arcane analogy was so curious that Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about it ("The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier Clone", essay #10 in his book, Bully for Brontosaurus), in which he concluded that Henry Fairfield Osborn had so described it in a widely distributed pamphlet, Osborn being a keen fox hunter who made a natural association between horses and the dogs that accompany them.

See also

Paleontology portal

• Equus
• Merychippus
• Mesohippus
• Evolution of the horse

References