Calippus

Calippus is an extinct genus of hoofed mammals in the horse family (Equidae), known from the Middle Miocene through the Early Pliocene of North and Central America. Fossils have been found in the Central United States and the Eastern United States, ranging south to Honduras. These equines had high crowned teeth and a quadrangular, wide muzzle, and were small compared to their contemporary relatives, with C. elachistus weighing 49 kg, C. cerasinus weighing 102 kg, 132 kg for C. theristes and 73 kg for C. mccartyi.

Calippus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EquiniPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Equinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 4.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 1.4 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 188 occurrencesMiocene — about 182 of 188 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 188 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 188 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 10 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 10 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 10 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 14 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 22 occurrences11–10.0 Mya — about 22 occurrences10.0–9.2 Mya — about 18 occurrences9.2–8.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences8.4–7.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences7.7–6.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.9–6.2 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.2–5.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.4–4.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.9–3.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.2–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–900 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16.3 Mya4.7 Mya23.5 Mya900 ka

188 occurrences of Calippus on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

188 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

18 formations

Ash Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.20°N, 101.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 100.70°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 41.40°N, 102.40°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.34°N, 97.96°WGoliad — 28.53°N, 97.74°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.50°N, 82.50°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°WFleming — 30.72°N, 95.28°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 30.59°N, 94.91°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.30°N, 95.70°WAlachua — 29.80°N, 82.10°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.40°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.10°N, 82.30°WStatenville — 30.40°N, 83.00°WStatenville — 30.90°N, 82.90°WGracias — 14.67°N, 88.64°WGracias — 14.60°N, 88.50°WJuchipila — 21.71°N, 102.96°WJuchipila — 21.73°N, 102.90°WJuchipila — 21.61°N, 102.99°WJuchipila — 21.75°N, 103.00°WClarendon Beds — 35.02°N, 100.82°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.77°WOgallala — 35.68°N, 99.60°WOgallala — 35.40°N, 101.40°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WPawnee Creek Beds — 40.80°N, 103.10°WLaverne — 36.80°N, 100.50°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCurré — 8.86°N, 83.08°WBlanco — 28.53°N, 97.74°W

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The named rock units Calippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 59 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Calippus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Calippus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

821 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 146 sites for Calippus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

42 references

Each of the 188 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 30 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Calippus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Calippus elachistus · UF:VP:53577

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEquini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Matthew and Stirton 1930)