| Plesippus Temporal range: late Miocene |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | Equidae |
| Genus: | Plesippus |
Plesippus is often considered an intermediary stage between Dinohippus and the present day genus, Equus.
The famous fossils found near Hagerman, Idaho were originally thought to be a part of the genus Plesippus Hagerman Fossil Beds (Idaho), a Pliocene site, dating about 3.5 Ma ago. The fossilized remains were originally called Plesippus shoshonensis but further study by paleontologists determined that fossils represented the oldest remains of the genus Equus.[1] Their estimated average weight was 425 kg, roughly the size of an Arabian horse.
At the end of the Pliocene, the climate in North America began to cool down significantly and most of the animals were forced to move south. One group of the Plesippus species moved across the land bridge around the Bering Strait into Eurasia around 2.5 Ma ago.[2]