Testing Equid Body Mass Estimate Equations on Modern Zebras—With Implications to Understanding the Relationship of Body Size, Diet, and Habitats of Equus in the Pleistocene of Europe

The monodactyl horses of the genus Equus originated in North America during Pliocene, and from beginning Pleistocene, they have been an essential part large ungulate communities Europe, Africa. Understanding how body size species evolved varied relation to changes environments diet thus forms important understanding dynamics variation Pleistocene paleoenvironmental changes. Here we test previously published mass estimation equations for family Equidae by investigating accurately different skeletal dental measurements estimate mean (and range) reported extant Grevy's zebra ( grevyi ) Burchell's quagga ). Based on these tests information frequently elements occur fossil record, construct a hierarchy best practices selection . As case study, explore European paleopopulations vegetation structure their paleoenvironments. We show relationship between : very large-sized tend more browse-dominated diets than small medium-sized species, paleovegetation proxies indicate average open grass-rich paleoenvironments small-sized, grazing When one co-occur sympatrically, larger be less abundant smaller species. suggest that was driven combined effect resource quality availability, partitioning habitats resources environmental openness group individuals.