Merychippus

Merychippus is an extinct proto-horse of the family Equidae that was endemic to North America during the Miocene, 15.97–5.33 million years ago. It had three toes on each foot and is the first horse known to have grazed.

Merychippus

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
EquinaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Equinae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Equinae
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 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 147 occurrencesMiocene — about 147 of 147 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 147 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 147 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 7 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 8 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 8 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 15 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 16 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 16 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 16 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 17 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 10 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.2–8.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.5–7.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.8–7.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.1–6.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.4–5.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.7–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.3 Mya11.63 Mya23.5 Mya2.1 Mya

147 occurrences of Merychippus 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

147 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

35 formations

Valentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WFleming — 30.72°N, 95.28°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 31.10°N, 93.10°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.30°N, 95.70°WMascall — 44.90°N, 120.20°WMascall — 44.20°N, 120.50°WMascall — 44.50°N, 119.30°WMascall — 44.00°N, 120.13°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WSheep Creek — 42.15°N, 103.70°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WTemblor — 36.10°N, 120.40°WTemblor — 36.54°N, 120.55°WTemblor — 35.27°N, 119.31°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WFort Randall — 43.10°N, 98.30°WFort Randall — 43.49°N, 99.27°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WMarks Head — 29.90°N, 82.10°WMarks Head — 29.90°N, 82.90°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WEl Camarón — 16.55°N, 96.03°WEl Camarón — 16.62°N, 96.05°WMatatlán — 16.92°N, 96.38°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WVirgin Valley — 41.10°N, 117.80°WGoliad — 28.53°N, 97.74°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°W"middle Miocene" — 41.30°N, 105.10°W"Fort Preston sand" — 30.20°N, 84.90°WTroublesome — 40.20°N, 106.10°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Merychippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Merychippus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Merychippus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

649 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 127 sites for Merychippus, 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

57 references

Each of the 147 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. 45 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 Merychippus

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itEquinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leidy 1856)