Although commonly referred to as the eohippus, which means the dawn horse, it is more appropriately called the Hyracotherium. Othniel Marsh, an American paleontologist, discovered the fossils of this creature and named it eohippus due to its similarities to the horse. Although the eohippus was very similar if not identical to a creature British paleontologist Richard Own discovered that he named hyracotherium. After many years, it was found to be the same species, and they went with the earlier name.

The eohippus only stood 10-20 inches tall, which is near the same height as a house cat. Their legs were higher in the back and shorter in the front, so when they ran, they bounced like pigs. Their legs caused them not to be very fast, so instead of running when they were scared, they would hide behind trees in the dense forests where they lived. They did this to get away from large birds and crocodiles that would try to eat them.

They had padded paws with toes rather than hooves. Their only similarity to a horse is rather than having claws; they had little “hooflets” on each toe — four toes on their front paws, and three toes on each of their back paws.

The body was round with a short neck and a tail like a donkey. They had a small head with small eyes that could not see very far ahead of them.

It’s doubtful they were very intelligent since they had tiny brains.