Moropus

Moropus
Temporal range: Early-Middle Miocene, 20.43–13.6 Ma[1]
Moropus elatus skeleton at the
National Museum of Natural History,
Washington, DC
Reconstruction of the head of M.elatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: †Chalicotheriidae
Subfamily: †Schizotheriinae
Genus: †Moropus
Marsh, 1877
Species
  • M. distans Marsh, 1877
  • M. elatus Marsh, 1877
  • M. hollandi Peterson, 1907
  • M. matthewi Holland & Peterson, 1913
  • M. merriami Peterson, 1914
  • M. oregonensis Leidy, 1873
  • M. senex Marsh, 1877

Moropus (meaning "slow foot") is an extinct genus of large perissodactyl ("odd-toed" ungulate) mammal in the chalicothere family. They were endemic to North America during the Miocene from ~20.4–13.6 Mya, existing for approximately 6.8 million years. Moropus belonged to the schizotheriine subfamily of chalicotheres, and has the best fossil record of any member of this group; numbers of individuals, including complete skeletons, have been found.

The closest extant relatives of Moropus are other perissodactyls: horses, rhinos, and tapirs.[2]

  1. ^ "Moropus in the Paleobiology Database". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference EoDP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).