Equus conversidens Temporal range:
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Perissodactyla |
Family: | Equidae |
Genus: | Equus |
Subgenus: | incertae sedis |
Species: | †E. conversidens
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Binomial name | |
†Equus conversidens Owen, 1869
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Synonyms | |
Equus conversidens, or the Mexican horse, was a Pleistocene species of horse, now extinct, that inhabited North America.
The holotype of Equus conversidens, a partial palate, was unearthed in Pleistocene deposits northeast of Mexico City, Mexico. In January 1963, a partial skeleton was found in the city of Canyon, Texas in a white clay bed during the excavation of a basement, and was referred to E. conversidens by Dalquest and Hughes (1965), who interpreted the species as medium to small-sized, and added additional records of the species from Texas (including a skeleton from Slaton), Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Florida, synonymizing Equus francisci, Equus tau, E. littoralis, E. achates, and E. barcenaei with E. conversidens.[3]
Winans (1985) and MacFadden (1992) challenged the validity of E. conversidens due to its minimal diagnostic value, and treated E. francisci as valid.[4][5] Heintzman, et al. (2017) argue that it is in not a member of the Equus genus.[6]