Primeval Dwarf Horses

Eurohippus messelensis. Messel, near Darmstadt, Germany. 47 million years.

The primeval horses from Messel are among the most important fossils, both because of their outstanding state of preservation and because of their key role in equine evolution.

ON 14 TOES
The Eocene dwarf horse Eurohippus was no bigger than a fox terrier. They lived in small groups in the tropical forest around Lake Messel, where they mainly stayed in the thick undergrowth, feeding mostly on leaves and fruits. Instead of hooves, they had four toes on their front legs and three on their rear legs.
Occasionally, dead primeval horses and other animals were washed into the crater lake in what is now Germany. On the floor of the lake, the oxygen-deprived environment prevented decomposition of the corpses. As a result, the Messel oil shale has preserved the remains of many animals in great detail. Often, there are imprints of soft body parts, stomach contents and even insect wings in their original colors. However, the fossils have to be carefully prepared to preserve and display them.
The horses from Messel are among the paleontological treasures, and not only because their stomach contents tell us much about their diet. The skeletons of Eurohippus – compared with the more recent primeval horses Mesohippus and Hippotherium from other lagerstätten – also tell us much about the evolution of the horse, from a small forest dweller living from leaves and fruits to a long-legged grass-eating denizen of the steppes. At NHM a computer animation shows the stages in development, which completely changed the appearance and lifestyle of the horse over a period of 50 million years.