Hipparion (Greek, "pony") is an extinct genus of horse that lived in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa during the Miocene through Pleistocene ~23 Mya—781,000 years ago.
Represented by hundreds of specimens, Hipparion lived in non-forested, grassy plains, short grass prairie or steppes. They appeared about midway in horse evolution.
Hipparions are the most common large mammal in many 10-million-year-old fossil sites. In spite of their success, hipparions were a side branch in horse evolution, with no modern survivors.
Hipparion resembled the modern horse, but still had two vestigial outer toes (in addition to its hoof). In some species, these outer toes were functional.
Hipparion was about 1.4 meters (4.6 ft) tall at the shoulder. Many species have been assigned to this genus. They weigh 100-150 kg.
Like other‭ ‘‬advanced‭’ ‬horses of the Miocene,‭ ‬Hipparion supported its body weight upon a single toe that ended with a hoof.‭ ‬Other toes so reduced in size that they did not even touch the ground.‭
It is believed to be one of the most numerous of the various large animal genera that lived in the late Miocene epoch.
Hipparion originated in North America and, in one of history's greatest animal migrations, spread in huge numbers across the Bering Bridge to Asia and Europe, and later to Africa.
Rapid expansion of the Hipparion population resulting from the warming of the earth and spread of the grasslands provided ample food on which the world's first grazing equines flourished in many parts of the globe.
By 6 million years ago, only a few species remained. The last hipparion species, Cormohipparion emsliei, hung on in Florida until about 2 million years ago.
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