The Mystery of South America's False Horses

How did the "false horse," Thoatherium, and its relatives survive when their hoofed legs seemed to be adapted for an ecosystem that wouldn't exist for another 12 million years?

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References:

[eons]

Find out more about our scientifically accurate, fully articulated mammoth figures here!

[goldie]

finally, someone else that's seen locomotor economy hypothesis live. pit was wild

[brianadams]

I had never thought about how much trouble a horse would have trying to run in a forest 😂

[_Ben___]

From the intro, I really thought the hypothesis was going to be that they evolved them as weapons to kick the crap out of predators.

[geodkyt]

The mosaic hypothesis reminds me of one of the hypotheses that tries to reason why early human ancestors appear to have developed bipedalism while still retaining soecialities for brachiation for quite a while - easief more efficient, and faster to walk upright from small forested patch to small forested patch, even while remaining mostly a forest dwelling animal.

[gattycroc]

South America's native groups of herbivorous mammals are so fascinating giving how they convergently evolve similar traits to ungulates from different continents. it's a shame Toxodon and Macrauchenia are the only members that get any media attention even though they're pretty cool themselves.

[Fayanora]

I kinda guessed the "both forests and grassland" thing early into the video because I said "Deer have hooves too, but then they don't live exclusively in forests, they also go into grassy meadows too."

[roycefruciano]

I love how the answer to most scientific conundrums is 'a bit of both'

[Adi-]

Can we have an episode on the evolution of grass please?

[Twayver]

My wife wants to know about manatee evolution and I would love to see that video as well!

[pimpompoom]

Fascinating, I never heard of this creature before.

[CJ-BZ]

Love videos on Litopterns, Notogulates and other “Meridiungulata”. The convergence in their evolution to the different ungulates we know today, as well as their stark differences, is so fascinating to me. I feel the same about most of South America’s original megafauna.

[brianadams]

Anyone else watch PBS eons as part of their night time routine? 😂

[drowjack]

The Cerrado Biome in Brazil is a great example of a hybrid environment

[fedeph]

As an Argentinian living in Buenos Aires im glad this channel cover more of our country fossils!

[svichna]

There is something about that phylogenetically true first hoofed mammals the size of rodents lived at the same time as Tyrannosaurus rex.

[lucasotis]

Oh, toy design is such a cool direction for PBS eons, I'm all about this!!

[veggieboyultimate]

South America really used to have the strangest mammals.

[feekygucker]

I saw Locomotor Economy Hypothesis in Sheffield in ‘91!

[germanomagnone]

4:58 refers to the "Dance of the Hours" from 1940's Fantasia (to be precise, they were hippos in the midday)