Anchitherium

Anchitherium (meaning near beast) was a fossil horse with a three-toed hoof.

Mandibles

Anchitherium
Temporal range: Miocene [1]
Anchitherium aurelianense, Hypohippus equinus, Merychippus sejunctus, and M. sphenodus fossils in Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Subfamily: †Anchitheriinae
Genus: †Anchitherium
von Meyer, 1844
Type species
Anchitherium ezquerrae
Species[1][2][3][4]
  • A. alberdiae
  • A. aurelianense
  • A. australis
  • A. castellanum
  • A. clarencei
  • A. corcolense
  • A. cursor
  • A. ezquerrae
  • A. gobiense
  • A. hippoides
  • A. matritense
  • A. navasotae
  • A. parequinum
  • A. procerum

Anchitherium was a browsing (leaf eating) horse that originated in the early Miocene of North America and subsequently dispersed to Europe and Asia,[3][4] where it gave rise to the larger bodied genus Sinohippus.[1] It was around 60 centimetres (6.0 hands) high at the shoulder, and probably represented a side-branch of horse evolution that left no modern descendants.[5]

References
  1. Salesa, M.J., Sánchez, I.M., and Morales, J. 2004. Presence of the Asian horse Sinohippus in the Miocene of Europe. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 49(2):189-196.
  2. Sánchez, I.M., Salesa, M.J., and Morales, J. 1998. Revisión sistemática del género Anchitherium Meyer, 1834 (Equidae; Perissodactyla) en España. Estudios Geológicos, 55(1-2):1-37
  3. Ye, J.; W.-Y. Wu; J. Meng (2005). "Anchitherium (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the Halamagai Formation of Northern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 43 (2): 100–109. Archived from the original on 2016-10-12.(in Chinese with English summary).
  4. MacFadden, B.J. 2001. Three-toed browsing horse Anchitherium clarencei from the early Miocene (Hemingfordian) Thomas Farm, Florida. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History, 43(3):79-109.
  5. Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 274. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
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