Hyracodon Explained

Hyracodon ('hyrax tooth') is an extinct genus of perissodactyl mammal.It was a lightly built, pony-like mammal of about 1.5 m (5 ft) long. Hyracodons 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.[1]

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.

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Notes and References

  1. Book: Palmer, D. . 1999 . The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals . Marshall Editions . London . 283–284 . 1-84028-152-9.