Protohippus

Protohippus is an extinct three-toed genus of horse. It was roughly the size of a modern donkey. Fossil evidence suggests that it lived during the Late Miocene, from about 13.6 Ma to 5.3 Ma.

Protohippus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 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
EquiniPBDB
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 5.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 4.7 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 95 occurrencesMiocene — about 93 of 95 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 95 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 7 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 7 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 7 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 7 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.7–8.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.1–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–6.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.8–6.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12.5 Mya7.246 Mya23.5 Mya4.2 Mya

95 occurrences of Protohippus 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

95 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

15 formations

Valentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 100.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WFleming — 30.72°N, 95.28°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.67°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 29.70°N, 96.70°WFleming — 30.59°N, 94.91°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.30°N, 95.70°WOgallala — 39.80°N, 99.40°WOgallala — 37.20°N, 99.90°WOgallala — 39.95°N, 99.53°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.40°N, 82.60°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WClarendon Beds — 35.02°N, 100.82°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WGoodnight Beds — 35.00°N, 101.30°WLoup Fork — 42.70°N, 102.50°WCurré — 8.86°N, 83.08°W

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The named rock units Protohippus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protohippus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Protohippus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

727 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Protohippus, 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

32 references

Each of the 95 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. 20 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 content1

Picture of Protohippus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protohippus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was 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 itEquini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leidy 1858)