An extinct small mammal from the early Eocene epoch, considered an ancestor of modern horses, about the size of a small dog.
From Greek eo- (early) plus hippos (horse). Means 'early horse' and was named to reflect its position as the earliest-known horse ancestor.
Eohippus is the textbook example of evolution—starting about dog-sized with four toes, its descendants gradually became bigger and developed hooves and fewer toes until they became modern horses over 50 million years.
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