Sivalhippus

Sivalhippus is an extinct genus of horse that lived in Africa and the Indian subcontinent during the late Miocene.

Sivalhippus
Temporal range: Late Miocene, 10.7–7.3 Ma
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: †Sivalhippus
Lydekker, 1877[1]
Type species
†Sivalhippus theobaldi
Species
  • †Sivalhippus anwari Wolf, Bernor, and Hussain, 2013
  • †Sivalhippus nagriensis (Hussain, 1971)
  • †Sivalhippus platyodus (Zhegallo, 1971)
  • †Sivalhippus perimensis (Pilgrim, 1910)
  • †Sivalhippus theobaldi Lydekker, 1877
  • †Sivalhippus turkanensis Hooijer and Maglio, 1974

Paleobiology

Like other extinct horses, the habitat (biome) of Sivalhippus consisted of non-forested, grassy plains, shortgrass prairie or steppes. Although Cremohipparion-like horses have been found in younger deposits of the Sivalik Hills, they tend to be much rarer.[2]

Taxonomy

This genus has a convoluted taxonomic history. After being described as a distinct genus, the holotype of Sivalhippus theobaldi, GSI 153, was later referred to Hippotherium and then Hipparion, as was the case with most other hipparionin species for most of the 20th century. Later, Skinner and MacFadden (1977), MacFadden and Bakr (1979), and MacFadden and Woodburne (1982) reassigned Sivalhippus to the North American genus Cormohipparion based on similarities with specimens of that genus.[3][4][5] However, a 2013 review of Sivalik hipparionins found Sivalihippus to be distinct from Cormohipparion and more closely related to Proboscidipparion and Cremohipparion than to Cormohipparion.[2]

References
  1. R. Lydekker. 1877. Notices of new and other Vertebrata from Indian Tertiary and Secondary rocks. Records of the Geological Survey of India 10(1):30-43
  2. Dominik Wolf, Raymond L. Bernor and Taseer Hussain (2013). "A Systematic, Biostratigraphic, and Paleobiogeographic Reevaluation of the Siwalik Hipparionine Horse Assemblage from the Potwar Plateau, Northern Pakistan". Palaeontographica Abteilung A 300 (1–6): 1–115.
  3. Skinner, M. F.; MacFadden, B. J. (1977). "Cormohipparion n. Gen. (Mammalia, Equidae) from the North American Miocene (Barstovian-Clarendonian)". Journal of Paleontology (Paleontological Society) 51 (5): 912–926. doi:10.2307/1303763. JSTOR 1303763.
  4. MacFadden, B. J. and A. Bakr (1979). The horse Cormohipparion theobaldi from the Neogene of Pakistan, with comments on Siwalik Hipparions. Palaeontology, 22 (2): 439-447
  5. MacFadden, B. J.; Skinner, M. F. (1982). "Hipparion Horses and Modern Phylogenetic Interpretation_ Comments on Forsten's View of Cormohipparion". Journal of Paleontology (Paleontological Society) 56 (6): 1336–1342. doi:10.2307/1304670. JSTOR 1304670.
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