Hipparion (Greek, "pony") is an extinct genus of horse living in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa during the Miocene through Pleistocene ~23 Mya—781,000 years ago, existing for 22 million years.
Its habitat or biome would be that of non-forested, grassy plains, shortgrass prairie or steppes.
Taxonomy[]
Hipparion was named by de Christol (1832) with it assigned the type European H. prostylum. It was assigned to Equidae by de Christol (1832), Thurmond and Jones (1981) and Carroll (1988); and to Hipparionini by MacFadden (1998).
Morphology[]
Hipparion resembled the modern horse, but still had three vestigal outer toes (in addition to its hoof). These did not touch the ground. Hipparion was about 1.4 metres (13.3 hands) tall at the shoulder.
Body mass[]
Three specimens were examined by Legendre and Roth for body mass.[5]
- Specimen 1 was estimated to weigh: 118.9 kg (260 lb)
- Specimen 2 was estimated to weigh: 69.4 kg (150 lb)
- Specimen 3 was estimated to weigh: 62.8 kg (140 lb)