Known formerly as Eohippus (the ‘dawn horse’), the earliest known perissodactyl, which is placed in the family Equidae. It was only 27 cm high, the size of a fox terrier: it was short-faced with low-crowned cheek teeth, and had four toes on the forefeet, and three on the hind. Abundant in the Early Eocene of N. America and Europe, it was recently discovered in Palaeocene deposits in Mongolia. It was a browser dwelling in forest glades, and the likely ancestor for all the horses. Because of its small size, when the fossils were first found, in Europe, they were mistakenly associated with the African hyraxes, hence the name. In America the fossils were identified correctly and the name ‘Eohippus’ was adopted, but according to the rules of taxonomic nomenclature ‘Hyracotherium’ takes precedence.