page_title: Hippidion
section_title: Evolution
hierarchical_section_title: Hippidion / Evolution
caption_attribution_description: Life restoration of Hippidion principale) (formerly neogaerum) from W.B. Scott's "A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere." New York: The Macmillan Company.
context_page_description: Hippidion is an extinct genus of horse that lived in South America from the Late Pliocene to the end of the Late Pleistocene, between two million and 11,000 years ago. They were one of two lineages of equines native to South America during the Pleistocene epoch alongside those of the Equus subgenus Amerhippus.
context_section_description: Hippidion has been considered a descendant of pliohippines, horses that migrated into the South American continent around 2.5 million years ago. Early analysis of the ancient DNA of Hippidion and other New World Pleistocene horses supported the novel hypothesis that Hippidion was actually a member of the living genus Equus, with a particularly close relationship to the wild horse, Equus ferus. However this was later shown to be incorrect, with more complete sequences finding Hippidion as an outgroup to all living equines and less closely related to living horses than the "New World stilt legged horse", Haringtonhippus francisci.
  Hippidion is traditionally thought to have 3 species, H. principale, H. saldiasi and H. devillei, however, in the DNA analysis, the single sampled  H. principale specimen was found to be nested with H. saldiasi, with H. devillei found to be clearly genetically distinct.
  Hippidion and other South American horses became extinct approximately 8,000 years ago. Specific archaeological recovery at the Cueva del Milodon site in Patagonian Chile demonstrates that Hippidion saldiasi existed in that vicinity in the era of 10,000 to 12,000 years before present. Horses did not reappear in South America until the 16th century, as a result of introduction by humans.
caption: Life restoration of H. principale from 1913
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