ANCHITHERIUM. 



293 



and antelope. Had the H. gractle been the ancestor of the 

 horse, this depression would not have entirely disappeared in 

 the horse. The H. gracile does not appear to have left any 

 descendants. It is probable that the immediate ancestors of 

 the horse of to-day [Equus caballus) came, in prehistoric times, 

 from America, in which country are to be found the remains 



Fig. 386 — {After Gaudry) Lefi Fore Fooi Oi Anchitherium 



(^tli real length). 



2;;2, second metacaipal bone (inner spluit-bone) , 3;;^, thud metacarpal bone 

 (cannon-bone) , p7t, fomth metacarpal bone (outer splint-bone) ,/', fiist phalan\ 

 (long pastel n bone) , p ', second phalanx (shoit pastern bone) , p"\ third phalanx 

 (pedal bone) 



of various kinds of fossil horses which resembled our present 

 ones more nearly than did H. gracile. The Hipparion 

 flourished in the upper Miocene and lower Pliocene ages, 

 and was from 13 to 14 hands high. 



The Hipparion was preceded in the Miocene period by a 

 somewhat similar, three-toed animal, the Anchitherium, which 

 was about 10 hands high. We may see from Fig. 386 that 

 its side toes were longer than those of its successor. The 

 Russian paleontologist, Kowalevsky, points out that the 

 bones below the fetlock in the Anchitherium were not so 

 firmly united together as they were in the Hipparion, and 



