EOHIPPUS (Horse) Fossil Jaw 50 Million Yrs old (03/13/2011)

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EOHIPPUS (Horse) Fossil Jaw 50 Million Yrs old

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EOHIPPUS (Horse) Fossil Jaw 50 Million Yrs old

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Sold Date: 03/13/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Natural History

Up for bid is a really nice jaw section from Eohippus, a primitive horse that lived 55-45 million years ago. It has 2 nice teeth. These jaw sections with multiple teeth sell for $100 or more. This would be a cool piece to display with the Mesohippus jaw section I also have up for auction this week. The Eohippus lived during the Eocene time period, while the Mesohippus was a primitive horse during a later time period (Oligocene) about 30 million years ago. I think it's so neat that there used to be horses about the size of cats. This is a must have for a fossil collection.

I am so confident that you will love this fossil that I offer a 100% money back guarantee.　If you don't like the fossil for any reason, send it back and I'll refund your money and pay for the returned shipping.　 We are happy to ship internationally! Thanks for looking!

Hyracotherium From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hyracotherium
Temporal range: Early Eocene–Mid Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Mounted replica of a Hyracotherium vasacciensis skeleton Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Perissodactyla Family: �� Palaeotheriidae Genus: Hyracotherium
Owen , 1841 Species: H. leporinum Binomial name Hyracotherium leporinum
Owen , 1841 Synonyms

? Eohippus Marsh , 1876

Hyracotherium (pronounced /ˌhaɪrəkɵˈθɪəriəm/ HY -rək-o- THEER -ee-əm ) (" Hyrax -like beast") (also known as Eohippus or The Dawn Horse ) is an extinct genus of very small (about 60 cm in length) perissodactyl ungulates that lived in the woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere , with species ranging throughout Asia , Europe , and North America during the early Tertiary Period and the early to mid Eocene Epoch, about 55—45 million years ago [1 ] with the earliest fossil specimen found at the Tsagan Khushu Quarry 1 site, Mongolia averaging about 60 cm in length and weighing around 15—16 kg (36 lbs) [2 ] This small, dog-sized animal is the oldest known horse and was once considered to be the earliest known member of the Equidae [ 3] before the type species was reclassified as a palaeothere , of a perissodactyl family related to both horses and brontotheres .

Contents [hide ] 1 Discovery 2 Description 3 Evolutionary role 4 Common misconception on size 5 See also 6 References [ edit ] Discovery Restoration by Heinrich Harder

The first fossils of this genus were found in England and described by the paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841. Suspecting that his species was a hyrax due to its teeth, but lacking parts of the skeleton, Owen called it a "Hyrax-like beast" and placed it in the new genus Hyracotherium . In 1876 in America Othniel C. Marsh found a full skeleton, which he placed in another new genus, Eohippus ("dawn horse"). When it became apparent that the two genera were likely one and the same, Eohippus for a time became a synonym of Hyracotherium , the genus with the earlier date of publication.

[ edit ] Description

Hyracotherium averaged two feet (60-cm) in length and eight to 14-inches (20-cm) high at the shoulder and weighed about 50 pounds. It had four hoofed toes on each front foot and three hoofed toes on each hind foot. Each toe had a pad on its underside, similar to those of a dog. It had a primitive, short face with eye sockets in the middle and a short diastema (the space between the front teeth and the cheek teeth). The skull was long, having 44 low-crowned teeth. Although it had low-crowned teeth, the beginnings of the characteristic horse-like ridges on the molars can be seen. Hyracotherium is believed to have been a browsing herbivore that ate primarily soft leaves as well as some fruits and nuts and plant shoots. [4 ]

[ edit ] Evolutionary role

It is proposed by some scientists that the Hyracotherium was not only ancestral to the horse, but to other perissodactyls such as rhinos and tapirs .[ 5] It is now regarded as a paleothere, rather than a horse proper, but this is only true of the type species , H. leporinum .[ 6] [7 ] Most other...