Eohippus

My favorite extinct mammal is the Eohippus. This name means “dawn horse” and is said to be an ancestor of the modern horse. Some of you may know this creature as the Hyracotherium, or hyrax-like beast. For those of you that do call the Eohippus “Hyracotherium,” DON’T CALL IT THAT. You should only call it that if you are trying to adhere to calling it by the first name, or if you possibly think that name is better than Eohippus. Other horses in the series flow better with that name Going in reverse order it goes Equus, Merrchippyus, Miohippus, then Mesohippus. What name sounds best to end off the sequence? Also, think about it, would you rather be called a horse, or “something that resembles a hyrax.” By the way, if you don’t know what a hyrax is, check http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/hyrax to find out. By the way, all comments referring to the Eohippus by its bad name will be deleted, seriously I will do it. Now that that’s out of the way, the reason the Eohippus has its bad name is all about timing. A paleontologist named Richard Owen dug up an Eohippus skeleton in 1841, saw some similarities between it and a hyrax and decided to call it the bad name. Later, Ontheil C. Marsh found another Eohippus skeleton in 1876. He saw that it was truly more like a horse than a hyrax and decided to call it Eohippus. They found out they were the same species and called it the bad name, just because it came first. Just because it came first doesn’t mean its right. I can name several examples of how this is true but I don’t feel like it. The Eohippus is about 2 feet in length and 8 to 9 inches tall. Unlike Equus, it has 4 toes on its front feet and three on its hind feet. Eohippus was probabably a browser, which means that it ate from bushes. Its family is currently considered Palaeotheriidae, not the same as horses, but it is genetically related. Do not try looking up this family. You will find nothing but this : This prehistoric mammal-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Strike that, the material was there, but it was hidden for some reason. You will find some info, but it is still a stub. Anyway, that it is it for the Eohippus, aka The name which must not be said. Next, I will discuss my favorite prehistoric bird which has also had a name change.

Felis Atrox

The next creature discussed will be an animal from the Cenozoic Era and a different possible name for this blog. This animal is known by me as Felis Atrox, or the American Lion. Yes, there were lions in America, they are extinct now, and you don’t see lions in America anymore except for at the zoo. These lions were not as large as the African lions, they were 4/3 larger than modern lions and also had longer legs. For those of you look at this later on Wikipedia, you see the lion there does not have a mane, these lions do have manes. If you check for “Felis Atrox” on Google, you will not get as many results as you might expect. This is because I heard about them from an outdated book and only found out the current name a few years ago. This is also true for two other animals in the Cenozoic Era. Regardless of it now being Panthera Leo Atrox, it will always be Felis Atrox to me. They probably did this because lions are considered as Panthera and not Felis. It is estimated that the American Lion lived from Alaska to Peru, but was absent from Eastern North America, East of the Mississippi River. However, they could possibly have been living around Lake Michigan. They probably preyed on deer, horses, apparently there used to be horses in North America too, American Bison, Mammoths, Camels, and other larger herbivores. Atrox means “cruel,” but I did not know this when I found out about it, so I like it anyway. There are not as many of these lions in the tar pits, apparently because they either were smart enough to know that the pits were a black, gooey death trap, or they just didn’t rely on using the tar pits to catch prey. All in all, Felis Atrox is great, but I’m somewhat glad they’re extinct, especially for those who live West of the Mississippi River.