Hypohippus (Greek: "under" (hypos), "horse" (hippos)) is an extinct genus of three-toed horse, which lived 17–11 million years ago. It was the largest anchitherine equid about the size of a modern domestic horse, at and long. It was a long-necked, high-shouldered browser with sub-hypsodont, lophodont (rhino-like) dentition, that fed on the tough vegetation of forest understory and shrubs. Its deep preorbital fossae and retraction of the nasal notch hint at the presence of a long, muscular and prehensile upper lip that would aid during selective browsing. Overall its ecology would have been more comparable to modern okapi than to grazing horses. Fossils of it have been found in Nebraska, Colorado, and Montana.

References

Miocene horses

Miocene odd-toed ungulates

Prehistoric placental genera

Miocene mammals of North America

Barstovian

Clarendonian

Fossil taxa described in 1858

Taxa named by Joseph Leidy

Hypohippus