Hippotherium

This article is about the first equine. For the artiodactyl, see Hippopotamus.

Hippotherium is an extinct genus of horse that lived during the Miocene through Pliocene ~13.65—6.7 Mya, existing for 6.95 million years.

Hippotherium Temporal range: 15–11 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ Middle to Late Miocene
Skeleton of Hippotherium primigenium, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Equidae
Subfamily:	Equinae
Tribe:	†Hipparionini
Genus:	†Hippotherium Kaup, 1832
Species
H. primigenius (von Meyer, 1829) (type species) H. weihoense (Liu et al. 1978) H. koenigswaldi (Sondaar, 1961) H. catalaunicum (Perlot, 1956)

The last known surviving Hippotherium was H. malpassii, found in Italy.^[1]

Species

Jaw and teeth

Metapodial

Skull

Skeleton of H. primigenius

The type species, H. primigenium, is known from Miocene deposits in Europe (e.g., the Hegau region in southern Germany)^[2] and the Middle East, while the species H. koenigswaldi and H. catalaunicum have been found in Miocene deposits in Spain.^{[citation needed]} The Asian hipparionin "Hipparion" weihoense from early Late Miocene deposits in northern China has also been referred to the genus.^[3][4]

Diet

H. primigenium was a generalist feeder which frequently browsed but could also exploit grasses.^[5] The dental mesowear of H. primigenium reveals that it lived in both open environments such as reed flats and closed environments such as mesophytic forests.^[6] In the arid Pannonian Basin System, Hippotherium is known to have migrated to make use of water sources with a high elevation origin, particularly from the nearby Vienna Basin.^[7]

Fossil distribution

• Doue-la-Fontaine France estimated age: ~13.65—7.25 Mya.
• Lower Bakhtiari Formation, northern Iraq, estimated age: ~11.6—9.0 Mya.
• Kurtchuk-Tchekmedje, Turkey estimated age: ~11.61—5.33 Mya.