Merychippus was named by Joseph Leidy (1856).
Numerous authors  assigned the type species – Merychippus insignis –  to Protohippus, but this is ignored.
It was assigned to the Equidae by Leidy (1856) and Carroll (1988), and to the Equinae by MacFadden (1998) and Bravo-Cuevas and Ferrusquía-Villafranca (2006).
Its name means "ruminant horse", but current evidence does not support Merychippus ruminating.
Merychippus was named by Joseph Leidy (1856). Numerous authors  assigned the type species – Merychippus insignis –  to Protohippus, but this is ignored. It was assigned to the Equidae by Leidy (1856) and Carroll (1988), and to the Equinae by MacFadden (1998) and Bravo-Cuevas and Ferrusquía-Villafranca (2006). Its name means "ruminant horse", but current evidence does not support Merychippus ruminating.
Merychippus