Chalicotherium – Late Oligocene-Early Pliocene (28-3 Ma)You know what? I’m bored of preh

Chalicotherium – Late Oligocene-Early Pliocene (28-3 Ma)You know what? I’m bored of prehistoric animals. Starting today, I’m just gonna pull a Jurassic World and start making shit up. Here’s my OC, it’s a gorilla horse and its name is Steven.Just kidding, this is a real animal. It’s not a particularly obscure one, so I probably didn’t fool a lot of you. Also, I’m bad at lying so that doesn’t help my case.So, continuing with the theme of weird-ass mammals from the Cenozoic, we’re talking about Chalicotherium. What’s the deal with Chalicotherium? Every detail about it only makes it weirder. It was a knuckle-walking herbivore from Eurasia, with the head of a horse. Its forelimbs were elongated and tipped with long claws. Its hind limbs were shorter, and it probably spend a long time sitting back on them. Despite this, Chalicotherium was a peaceful animal. It used its claws to pull branches down and munch on soft vegetation. It probably walked on its knuckles to avoid wearing the claws down. Juveniles had incisors and canine teeth at the front of their jaw, like we do, but as they matured, the teeth fell out and weren’t replaced, leaving only the molars. When they were younger and smaller, they probably only had access to the tougher plants close to the ground. But as they matured and could reach higher plants, they no longer needed teeth for cutting and stripping leaves. Adult Chalicotherium were probably picky eaters. And since they were the tallest animals in their ecosystems, they could afford to be. As far as we know, there weren’t any other animals gunning for that good, good vegetation up there. Or at least, not animals that could reach it.Chalicotherium was an odd-toed ungulate, and its closest living cousins are tapirs, horses, and rhinos. The Chalicothere family was long-lived, first evolving from small woodland types in the Eocene. Their ancestors probably looked a lot like early horses, chubby little animals with short toes. As grasslands became increasingly prevalent in the Cenozoic, Chalicotheres diverged into two groups: One that stayed in the woodlands and took care of business as usual, and another group that took advantage of this strange new ecosystem and populated the grasslands. Chalicotherium belonged to the latter. The family survived until surprisingly recently, with the most recent member living until about 700,000 years ago.Depending on who you ask, Chalicotherium might even still be hanging around (DISCLAIMER: Almost certainly not). A Kenyan cryptid called the Nandi Bear has been speculated by some to be a Chalicothere, given the description of an animal with a sloped back and sharp claws. Although, the Nandi Bear is supposed to be a carnivore, so that doesn’t really vibe with our friend the Chalicotherium. According to local tradition, the Nandi Bear eats only the brains of its victims, and that’s definitely not what this animal was about. Chalicotherium just wanted to wander around and eat leaves. It wasn’t a violent animal. So yeah, it’s not true, but it’s fun to talk about.I’ve wanted to draw Chalicotherium for a while. It’s such a bizarre animal, and I love the detail with which we can analyze the mammals of the Cenozoic. I first heard about this family from Walking with Beasts. I’ve kind of inadvertently covered most of the animals from “Land of Giants”. The first mammal I talked about was the star of that episode, Paraceratherium, and the last Cenozoic animal I discussed was an Entelodont. Oh well. I just think they’re neat. -- source link

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