Parahippus

Parahippus, is an extinct equid, a relative of modern horses, asses, and zebras. It lived from 24 to 17 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. It was very similar to Miohippus, but slightly larger, at around 1 metre tall, at the withers. Their fossils have been found in North America, primarily in the Great Plains region and Florida.

Parahippus

Geekgecko · CC BY 4.0 · 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 6.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.1 Mya to 16.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29.5 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 5 of 74 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 69 of 74 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 74 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 12 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 12 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 7 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.9–9.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.0–8.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.2–7.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.3–6.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.5–5.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.7–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23.1 Mya16.3 Mya30 Mya4.8 Mya

74 occurrences of Parahippus 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

74 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

26 formations

John Day — 44.76°N, 121.26°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 121.30°WJohn Day — 44.70°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.50°N, 119.30°WOakville — 30.30°N, 95.70°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WOakville — 30.75°N, 95.22°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WRosebud — 43.30°N, 102.50°WRosebud — 43.18°N, 102.30°WVaqueros — 33.60°N, 117.80°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.73°WTick Canyon — 34.48°N, 118.39°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°WTorreya — 30.61°N, 84.25°WTorreya — 30.30°N, 84.20°WMascall — 44.50°N, 119.30°WHarrison — 43.30°N, 102.50°W"middle Miocene" — 41.30°N, 105.10°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WArcadia — 27.80°N, 82.80°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WBrowns Park — 40.60°N, 108.10°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WCaliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WBox Butte — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WLoup Fork — 42.70°N, 102.50°W

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The named rock units Parahippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Parahippus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Parahippus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

784 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Parahippus, 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

42 references

Each of the 74 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. 30 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 Parahippus

Credit
Geekgecko
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Parahippus barbouri · UF:VP:270648

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)