MESOHIPPUS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Mesohippus

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Mesohippus

noun

North American three-toed Oligocene animal; probably not directly ancestral to modern horses.

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Etymology of 'Mesohippus'

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genus Mesohippus

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"Mesohippus" Quotes from Famous Books

... geological period, the Oligocene, we find several horse-types in which the adaptation of the limbs to running on the firm grassy plains and of the teeth to eating the grass continues. Mesohippus has lost the fourth toe of the fore foot, which is now reduced to a splintbone, and the lateral toes of its hind foot are shrinking. In the Miocene period there is a great development of the horse-like mammals. We have the remains of more than forty species, some continuing ...

— The Story of Evolution • Joseph McCabe

... progress in a definite direction, all parts of the structure participating in the advance. It is not necessary to follow each of these successive steps of change, but it should be emphasised that the changes are gradual and uninterrupted. The genus Mesohippus, of the middle Oligocene, may be selected as a kind of half-way stage in the long progression. Comparing Mesohippus with Eohippus, we observe that the former is much larger, some species attaining the size of a sheep, ...

— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

Words linked to "Mesohippus" : horse, genus Mesohippus, Equus caballus