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Mesohippus bardi (early horse) Mounted Skeleton

Mesohippus bardi; the ancestor of the modern horse, we prefer to wait for you to determine the pose before we begin mounting. Period: Oligocene Age; 35 million year Location; South Dakota.

Mesohippus (meaning "middle horse") is an extinct, dog-sized, three-toed horse. It was about 4 feet (1.2 m) long and was roughly 2 feet (60 cm) tall at the shoulder. Its middle toe had a light-weight hoof wth a large, weight-supporting middle toe; the head was long and pointed (the jaws were shallow). Mesohippus lived during the middle Oligocene (about 37-32 million years ago) in the Great Plains and foothills of the Rockies of North America. It had low-crowned teeth that could grind relatively well; its premolars were beinning to resemble its molars. Mesohippus' diet consisted of leaves from shrubs and low trees. Classification: Order Perissodactyla, Family Equidae.