Sespia

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Sespia
Fossil range: Late Oligocene

Sespia ultima and S. californica

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	†Merycoidodontidae
Subfamily:	†Leptaucheniinae
Tribe:	†Sespiini
Genus:	†Sespia (Stock, 1930)

Type species

†Sespia nitida

Species

†S. californica
†S. heterodon
†S. nitida
†S. ultima

Synonyms

†Megasespia Schultz and Falkenbach, 1968

Sespia ("Sespe") was a genus of house cat-sized to goat-sized, desert-dwelling oreodonts from the Late Oligocene. The genus was closely related to the larger Leptauchenia.

Fossils of the best known species, the cat-sized S. californica, have been found California, namely, in Chula Vista, and Carlsbad, and is known from literally thousands of specimens. The largest species, the goat-sized S. ultima, is known from late Oligocene deposits in Nebraska. S. ultima was once placed in a separate, monotypic genus, as Megasespia middleswarti. Other species were once placed within Leptauchenia.