Anchitherium Temporal range: [1]
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Anchitherium aurelianense, Hypohippus equinus, Merychippus sejunctus, and M. sphenodus fossils in Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin | |
Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Perissodactyla |
Family: | Equidae |
Subfamily: | † Anchitheriinae |
Genus: | †
Anchitherium von Meyer, 1844 |
Type species | |
Anchitherium ezquerrae | |
Species [1] [2] [3] [4] | |
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Anchitherium (meaning near beast) was a fossil horse with a three- toed hoof.
Anchitherium was a browsing ( leaf eating) horse that originated in the early Miocene of North America and subsequently dispersed to Europe and Asia, [3] [4] where it gave rise to the larger bodied genus Sinohippus. [1] It was around 60 centimetres (6.0 hands) high at the shoulder, and probably represented a side-branch of horse evolution that left no modern descendants. [5]
Media related to
Anchitherium at Wikimedia Commons