File:The horse and its relatives (1912) (14768646864).jpg

Identifier: horseitsrelative00lydeuoft (find matches)
Title: The horse and its relatives
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915
Subjects: Donkeys Equidae Horses Zebras
Publisher: New York : MacMillan
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ehippidium the purpose of the modification is thesame. It has been supposed that in the case ofthe chiru the large size of the nasal chamber is anadaptation to the respiratory needs of an animalliving at a very high elevation ; but in the case ofthe saiga such an explanation cannot hold good ;and the real explanation in all three cases mayperhaps be found in a special adaptation to a desertlife, the long nose serving as a filter to preventparticles of sand reaching the organ of smell. As regards the rest of its skeleton, Hippidiumis remarkable for its short and stout limbs; thisbeing chiefly due to the excessive shortness of thecannon-bones, which are also unusually wide, andthe great stoutness of the splint-bones. Each limbterminates in a single toe. These short limbs,coupled with the huge, unwieldy head, indicate thatthe hippidium had less speed than ordinary ponies.There are only five ribless trunk, or lumbar, verte-brae, as in the Arab horse. The skull of Hippidium shows no marked
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THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 253 depression in front of the eye-socket, but that ofOnohippidium has a long and deep oval pit in thisposition divided into two distinct portions. Remainsof this group of extinct horses have been found inthe superficial deposits of the pampas of Argentina,and also in caverns in Patagonia, Brazil, Bolivia,Peru, and Ecuador. The Peruvian species was de-scribed in 1908 by Mr. Nordenskiold as Oiiohippi-diuin pericaniun, but in 1910 was made the type of adistinct genus, under the name of Hyperhippidiuviperuanum) In all three genera the crowns of the cheek-teeth are shorter than in Eqims ; and those of theupper jaw are characterised by the equality in thesize of the orrindinor surfaces of the anterior andposterior pillars on the inner side. Hoofs of Onohippidium have been found in aremarkably fresh state of preservation in a cavernat Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) Inlet, Patagonia,in association with the skin and hair and otherremains of an extinct giant ground-s

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