Hypohippus

Hypohippus is an extinct genus of three-toed horse, which lived 17–11 million years ago. It was the largest anchitherine equid about the size of a modern domestic horse, at 403–600 kg (888–1,323 lb) and 1.8 m (5.9 ft) long. It was a long-necked, high-shouldered browser with sub-hypsodont, lophodont (rhino-like) dentition, that fed on the tough vegetation of forest understory and shrubs. Its deep preorbital fossae and retraction of the nasal notch hint at the presence of a long, muscular and prehensile upper lip that would aid during selective browsing. Overall its ecology would have been more comparable to modern okapi than to grazing horses. Fossils of it have been found in Nebraska, Colorado, and Montana.

Hypohippus

Osborn. · Public Domain · 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
AnchitheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Equidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Equidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 111 occurrencesMiocene — about 110 of 111 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 111 occurrencesPliocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 11 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 11 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 11 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 8 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.6–7.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.9–7.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.2–6.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.5–5.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.8–5.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.1–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.3 Mya11.63 Mya23.5 Mya3.1 Mya

111 occurrences of Hypohippus 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

111 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

33 formations

Valentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WTemblor — 36.10°N, 120.40°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.34°N, 97.96°WGoliad — 28.49°N, 97.67°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.20°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WMascall — 44.50°N, 119.30°WMascall — 44.20°N, 120.50°WBopesta — 35.19°N, 118.28°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WBox Butte — 42.20°N, 103.10°WArcadia — 27.80°N, 82.80°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WMadison Valley — 45.93°N, 111.29°WHepburn's Mesa — 45.80°N, 110.50°WSalt Lake — 41.50°N, 112.90°WTroublesome — 40.20°N, 106.10°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hypohippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 25 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hypohippus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hypohippus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

801 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 110 sites for Hypohippus, 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

61 references

Each of the 111 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. 49 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 Hypohippus

Credit
Osborn.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Hypohippus sp. · uw:3611

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAnchitheriinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leidy 1858)