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Scarritia |
30 million years ago, South America obviously lacked horses, since those (still three-toed at the time) originated in the north, and the southern continents had long been isolated from their homeland. What it did have, however, were a group of mammals called the
notohippids, a name that literally translates as "southern horses". While they might not be closely related, the name might lead one to suspect that they had at least a resemblance to the modern animals.
They didn't.
Well, not much. When the name was originally coined, for the Miocene genus Notohippus, back in 1891, it was assumed that they really were horses, or at least closely related. This is because of the shape of their teeth which, did indeed resemble those of equines. It only took until 1914 to realise that, teeth aside, they weren't very horse-like. That their teeth were similar suggests a similar diet with plenty of tough vegetation, and their head was elongated in an almost horse-like fashion to accommodate them... but that's pretty much where the resemblance ends. For one thing, they had claws, not hooves; their bodies were also stockier, albeit with long limbs that may have given them a certain agility.