Hipparion

Hipparion Temporal range: Mid Miocene to Pleistocene,[1] 23–0.781 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
H. laromae skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Equidae
Genus:	Hipparion De Christol, 1832
Species
H. concudense Pirlot, 1956 H. dietrichi Wehrli, 1941 H. fissurae Crusafont and Sondaar, 1971 H. forcei Richey, 1948 H. laromae Pesquero et al., 2006 H. lufengense Sun, 2013 H. molayanense Zouhri, 1992 H. philippus Koufos & Vlachou, 2016 H. phlegrae Lazaridis and Tsoukala, 2014 H. prostylum Gervais, 1849 (type) H. sellardsi Matthew and Stirton, 1930 H. shirleyae MacFadden, 1984 H. sithonis Koufos & Vlachou, 2016 H. tehonense (Merriam, 1916)

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

Painting of Hipparion

Hipparion was named by de Christol^[2] (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).^[3][4][5]

Morphology

Hipparion resembled the modern horse, but still had two 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.^[1]

Body mass

Three specimens were examined by Legendre and Roth for body mass.^[6]

• 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)

Species

• H. concudense Pirlot, 1956
• H. dietrichi Wehrli, 1941
• H. fissurae Crusafont and Sondaar, 1971
• H. forcei Richey, 1948
• H. laromae Pesquero et al., 2006
• H. lufengense Sun, 2013^[7]
• H. molayanense Zouhri, 1992
• H. phlegrae Lazaridis and Tsoukala, 2014^[8]
• H. prostylum Gervais, 1849
• H. sellardsi Matthew and Stirton, 1930
• H. shirleyae MacFadden, 1984
• H. tehonense (Merriam, 1916)

References

1. Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 257. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
2. Christol, Jules de - La France savante XVIIe-XXe
3. J. T. Thurmond and D. E. Jones. 1981. Fossil Vertebrates of Alabama 1-244
4. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
5. B. J. MacFadden. 1998. Equidae. In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America 1:537-559
6. S. Legendre and C. Roth. 1988. Correlation of carnassial tooth size and body weight in recent carnivores (Mammalia). Historical Biology 1(1):85-98
7. Bo-Yang Sun (2013). "The Miocene Hipparion (Equidae, Perissodactyla) from Shihuiba Locality, Lufeng, Yunnan". Vertebrata PalAsiatica 51 (2): 141–161.
8. Georgios Lazaridis and Evangelia Tsoukala (2014). "Hipparion phlegrae, sp. nov. (Mammalia, Perissodactyla): a new species from the Turolian locality of Kryopigi (Kassandra, Chalkidiki, Greece)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (1): 164–178. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.781033.