Talk:Haringtonhippus

Latest comment: 1 year ago by Hemiauchenia in topic What does "stilt-legged" mean here?

NWSL Horse edit

"Previously referred to informally as the New World stilt-legged Horse,[citation needed]" - removed for now. The usage of this term is problematic right now, so it's probably best to leave it out. It was used to refer to many different fossils, many of which are now condensed (but only by one source) into Haringtonhippus. The authors claim that all NWSL Horses belong in Haringtonhippus, but they don't have explicit proof to support all of their claims (no DNA results for some fossils, such as the singular Equus semiplicatus fossil. Fraenir (talk) 15:17, 14 December 2017 (UTC)Reply

  • I would tend to disagree, we've had a similar discussion about Notiomastodon in the past which you should read the archive for here Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Palaeontology/Archive 11 According to fossilworks, E. semipicatus is only known from a single fossil in Williams cave in Texas. I think lack of DNA is not a convincing reason be believe it to be separate in this case, as it is only known from a single specimen. The holotype of H. francsci is also from texas (Wharton county), and another confirmed specimen is known from Dry Cave, New Mexico. which is very close to the semipicatus holotype locality. given that horses are wide ranging taxon and it is bounded on both sides by confirmed H. francisci, I see it is pretty unlikely that semipicatus is distinct from H. francisci. Even if E semiplicatus were distinct species, it would still probably be part of Harringtonhippus genus due to it's stilt legged nature, if all the other stilt legged horses are part of Harringtonhippus as well. The title of the article is Haringtonhippus not Haringtonhippus francisci, so I think that saying that the Haringtonhippus genus is synonymous with the New World Stilt legged Horses is reasonable until further notice
 
 
Equus semiplicatus
 
H. francisci holotype
 
H. francisci
Haringtonhippus (Texas)

Hemiauchenia (talk) 14:25, 17 December 2017 (UTC)Reply

What does "stilt-legged" mean here? edit

So what does "stilt-legged" mean here?

Can somebody please add clarification to the article?

- 189.122.243.241 (talk) 18:24, 28 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

According to [1] it refers to the silt-like nature of the distal limbs bones, I've added this to the article. Hemiauchenia (talk) 18:31, 28 February 2023 (UTC)Reply