hyracotherium

American  

[hahy-ruh-koh-theer-ee-uhm] / ˌhaɪ rə koʊˈθɪər i əm /

Also hyracothere

noun

hyracotheria plural

1. eohippus.

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hyracotherium Scientific  

/ hī′rə-kō-thîr′ē-əm /

hyracotheria plural

1. A small primitive horse that lived about 50 million years ago during the early Eocene Epoch. It had three or four hoofed toes on each foot and is considered by some to be the ancestor of modern horses. It is sometimes called the “dawn horse,” a translation of its earlier scientific name, Eohippus.

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Etymology

Origin of hyracotherium

< New Latin (1840): a genus name; see hyrax, -o-, -there

Example Sentences

“Early horses, Hyracotherium, are superabundant at midlatitudes. But they don’t make it” to the Arctic.

From Scientific American • Jan. 25, 2023

After hiking for about an hour across the flat desert, they came across boulder-strewn hollows where they uncovered a cache of mammalian fossils, including teeth from the extinct five-toed horse Hyracotherium.

From Scientific American • Sep. 27, 2012

Some of these have been referred by Professor Owen to an opossum, and others to the genus Hyracotherium.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

And if, for example, we were to call the Hyracotherium a Hyrax beast it would not be a name, but a description, and not a bit more intelligible.

From Animals of the Past by Lucas, Frederic A.

The evolution of the horse through such forms as Hyracotherium, Pachynolophus, Eohippus, &c., appears to have proceeded along parallel lines in Eurasia and America, but the true horse did not arrive until later.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various