Fossil ‘Pseudo-Horses’ Found in Spain Had Short Legs and Weird Teeth

Researchers have key out two antecedently unknown mammals based on dodo clay unearth in Spain . They were gymnastic horse precursors that would ’ve enjoy the subtropical temperatures in what is now Basque res publica .

The animals are paleotheres , relatives of horse that were trotting around Earth 37 million year ago , when Europe was an archipelago and the mood was much warm . This was the Eocene , the prison term stop follow the Cretaceous . During the Eocone , mammals diversified more without the terror of dinosaur looming over their berm , and some of that variegation meant the beginning of the paleotheres , a group of singular - toed ungulates . This animate being crowd — which today let in zebras , rhinos , donkeys , and Equus caballus — had an wholly different cast of characters during the Eocene . Two of them now known to science are Leptolophus cuestai and Leptolophus franzeni , named in research recentlypublishedin the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology .

“ Imagine brute similar to horse with three toe , the sizing of a fox terrier , a big Dane and a domestic ass know in a subtropical landscape , ” said Ainara Badiola , a paleontologist at the Universidad del País Vasco and a co - source of the study , in a University of the Basque Countrypress expiration . “ Many of these fraud - sawbuck have been described at the Zambrana site . ”

A rendering of newly described species Leptolophus cuestai by a lake.

A rendering of newly described species Leptolophus cuestai by a lake.Illustration: Ulises Martínez Cabrera

The fossil internet site in Zambrana has antecedently turned up other Eocene mammals , include rodents , marsupial , andeven high priest . Among this bevy of animate being were thepaleotheres , call pseudo - buck because they ’re a lot like extant equines but go to a different taxonomic family than naive horses . Like other paleotheres , the fresh identify species were lowly than modern horses and had peculiar tooth , even among their ancient pal .

“ Their molar have a very high diadem and are covered with a thick layer of cement , ” said Leire Perales - Gogenola , also a paleontologist at the Universidad del País Vasco and the field of study ’s lead author , in the same sacking . “ This type of dentition , also present in other indigenous Iberian palaeotheriidae , could be indicatory of a dispute in environmental conditions between the Iberian and key European areas , with more waterless stipulation or less slow or closed forests and the presence of more open domain in Iberia . ”

The tooth of L. cuestai , one of the novel specie , had crowns similar to those of mod knight , show they ate grass . But the researchers have n’t finished the analysis of the paleothere stay they ’ve institute at the site , so more is sure to come on these queer , miniature relatives of the horse .

Fossil paleothere Propaeleotherium at Frankfurt’s natural history museum.