Propalaeotherium

Taxobox
name = "Propalaeotherium"
fossil_range = Middle Eocene

---

image_caption = "Propalaeotherium parvulum" & "P. hassiacum"
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
subclassis = Eutheria
ordo = Perissodactyla
familia = Palaeotheriidae
genus = "Propalaeotherium"
genus_authority = Gervais, 1849
species = "P. parvulum"
binomial = "Propalaeotherium parvulum"
binomial_authority = (Laurillard, 1849)

"Propalaeotherium" was an early genus of perissodactyl ancestral to the horse. Its name means "before "Palaeotherium", as it is the ancestor of "Palaeotherium", another relative of early horses. Although they were descended from the earliest ancestral horse, "Hyracotherium", the Propaleotheres and Paleotheres were not the ancestors of the modern horse; their line died out around 45 million years ago, leaving no descendants.

Description

Propalaeotheres were small animals, ranging from 30–60 cm at the shoulder. They looked rather like very small tapirs. They had no hooves, having instead several small nail-like hooflets. They were herbivorous, and the amazingly well-preserved Messel fossils show that they ate berries, and leaf matter picked up from the forest floor.

In popular culture

Propalaeotherium was featured in Walking With Beasts.

ee also

*List of mammals
*Evolution of the Horse
*List of prehistoric mammals
*Mammal
*Mammal classification

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/beasts/evidence/prog1/page3_2.shtml BBC Online Science and Nature]
* [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/horses/horse_evol.html Horse Evolution]