‖ Hipparion Palæont.
(hɪˈpɛərɪən)
[mod.L., ad. Gr. ἱππάριον pony.]
An extinct genus of quadrupeds of small size, of Miocene and Pliocene age, regarded as ancestrally related to the horse.
| 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vii. (1878) 201 The differences between the extinct three-toed Hipparion and the horse. 1877 Le Conte Elem. Geology iii. (1879) 509 The Protohippus of the United States and allied Hipparion of Europe, an animal still more horse like..in structure and size. |