Equidae, Gray, 1821

Denis Geraards, 2017, Late Miocene large mammals from Mahmutgazi, Denizli province, Western Turkey, Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen 284 (3), pp. 241-257 : 247

Family Equidae GRAY, 1821

I shall only briefly report on this group. STAESCHE & SONDAAR (1979) mentioned that they included the Karlsruhe material in their study of the Turkish hipparions but, although they provide the measurements of a number of teeth, they do not mention postcranials from Mahmutgazi, and seemingly included all hipparions from this site in a single species, Hipparion matthewi .

The most significant fossils in the SMNK are eight metapodials and a number of upper and lower tooth-rows, but no remain includes the preorbital part of the skull, consistently used in hipparion systematics. The main measurements of six relatively complete metatarsals are plotted in Fig. 6 ; they clearly indicate the presence of two species, each with remarkably little intra-specific variation. The lengths of the bones of the two species are not very different, but the shorter ones are much more slender. The measurements of two metacarpals display the same pattern: one is shorter and much more slender than the other (I follow here the tradition in using Simpson diagrams, although in fact they show little more than gross differences in size; obviously, multivariate analyses would be better adapted but, beyond a brief attempt by KOUFOS & VLACHOU [2005], they have been neglected).

Differences in tooth-row lengths ( Table 8 ) are also quite clear, and the distribution of individual tooth lengths is clearly bimodal ( STAESCHE & SONDAAR 1979, fig. 26), confirming the existence of two species.

Figures

Fig. 6. Simpson graphs of hipparionine metapodials. I chose to use Cremohipparion mediterraneum from Pikermi (KOUFOS 1987) as a standard, because this species is more relevant than the central European Höwenegg form. 1 = maximum length; 3 = width of shaft; 5 = proximal breadth; 10 = distal supra-articular width; 11 = distal articular width; 12 = maximum distal antero-posterior diameter.