Miohippus

Miohippus is an extinct genus of horse existing longer than most Equidae. It lived in what is now North America from 32 to 25 million years ago, during the late Eocene to late Oligocene. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, Othniel Charles Marsh first believed Miohippus lived during the Miocene and thus named the genus using this incorrect conclusion. More recent research provides evidence that Miohippus actually lived during the Paleogene period.

Miohippus

mark6mauno · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
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 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Eocene — about 8 of 104 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 80 of 104 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 104 occurrencesMiocene42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 6 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 6 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 6 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 7 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 7 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 6 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 6 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 6 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 6 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 6 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 7 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 7 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33.9 Mya18.5 Mya41.5 Mya15.8 Mya

104 occurrences of Miohippus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

104 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

19 formations

Brule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.00°N, 104.20°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.76°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WRenova — 46.65°N, 113.05°WRenova — 46.40°N, 112.80°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WHarrison — 43.30°N, 102.50°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WArikaree — 46.40°N, 103.30°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WArcadia — 27.90°N, 82.10°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WTurtle Butte — 43.07°N, 99.83°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WYolomécatl — 17.46°N, 97.58°WTecuya — 34.92°N, 118.97°WKishenehn — 48.93°N, 114.36°WCatahoula — 31.66°N, 88.66°W

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The named rock units Miohippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Miohippus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Miohippus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

680 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Miohippus, 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

45 references

Each of the 104 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. 33 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 content2

Picture of Miohippus

Credit
mark6mauno
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itAnchitheriinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1874