Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Hyracodon

Extinct genus of mammal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hyracodon
Remove ads

Hyracodon ('hyrax tooth') is an extinct genus of perissodactyl mammal.

Thumb
H. nebraskensis skull, found near Hermosa, South Dakota.

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Species ...
Remove ads

It was a lightly built, pony-like mammal of about 1.5 m (5 ft) long. Hyracodon's skull was large in comparison to the rest of the body. Hyracodon's dentition resembled that of later rhinocerotoids, but it was a much smaller animal and differed very little in appearance from the primitive horses of which it was a contemporary (32–26 million years ago). It had a short, broad snout and its long, slender limbs had three digits.[2]

Like the primitive horses, hyracodonts inhabited open forests and wooded steppes and turned from browsing foliage to grazing grass. They died out without leaving any descendants and they mark the end of the phylogenetic branch of hornless, running rhinocerotoids.

Remove ads

References

Loading content...

Sources

Loading content...
Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads