Temporal range: Eocene
?Eohippus Marsh, 1876
Hyracotherium was previously called Eohippus (meaning "dawn horse"). It is a Eurasian species ancestral to the horse, but not the same animal as Eohippus.
Hyracotherium lived during the early Eocene epoch, about 55–45 million years ago. It lived in the northern hemisphere in Asia and Europe. The first fossils of this tiny horse were found in England by Richard Owen in 1841 and named Hyracotherium.
The type species, H. leporinum, is now regarded as a paleothere, ancestral to both horses and brontotheres. Eohippus has been brought back as a name, to describe the early proto-horse found in North America. The main stream of horse evolution occurred on the North American continent.
References[change | change source]
- Froehlich D.J. (2002). "Quo vadis eohippus? The systematics and taxonomy of the early Eocene equids (Perissodactyla)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 134 (2): 141–256. .
- Hooker J.J. (1994). "The beginning of the equoid radiation". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 112 (1–2): 29–63. .