Equus giganteus

The giant horse is a dubious extinct species of horse that lived in North America. It was classified based on the finding of a single tooth from Texas, larger than the teeth of even the largest modern draft horses. Based on the tooth, the weight was estimated at 1,200–1,500 kg (2,600–3,300 lb) and the height at 2.25 m tall at the shoulder. Because it is based on fragmentary remains, subsequent authors have considered the species to be a nomen dubium.

Equus giganteus

Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions · 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
EquusPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Equus
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Equus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 3 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 9 of 12 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Equus giganteus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

12 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

3 formations

Crooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBon Homme Gravel — 43.00°N, 97.40°WSeymour — 33.75°N, 99.50°W

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The named rock units Equus giganteus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Equus giganteus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Equus giganteus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

107 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Equus giganteus, 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

8 references

Each of the 12 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. 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 content1

Picture of Equus giganteus

Credit
Internet Archive Book Images
Licence
No restrictions
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Equus giganteus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itEquus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gidley 1901