Ever heard of a three-toed horse?
Fourth-grader Makaela Vogel knows about them. The Dixon Elementary student found a petrified bone encased in sandstone belonging to such a horse that ran through the area more than 12 to 15 million years ago.
“I was walking and I almost stepped on it,” Vogel said. “First, I thought it was just a normal bone and my dad told me it was a fossil.“
Vogel and her father, Jim, were taking a hike when she almost literally stumbled upon the bone almost 100 yards away from their Dixon house. To scientists in the area, what Vogel found Feb. 16 was quite the rare discovery because it wasn’t just a single bone. The child stumbled upon the whole upper skull and jaw of the animal along with a bone from both the front and hind legs.
“There’s never been any teeth found in this area of any animal,” geologist Scott Aby said. “The animal was old because the teeth were worn. It was about three to four feet at the shoulder or withers.”
Aby worked with paleontologist Gary Morgan to carefully dig up the bones and are in the process of confirming the animals species. Aby and Morgan, for the moment, assume it comes from the pliohippus-sp scientific classification. “Hippus” is the Greek word for horse. Aby said the skull was the size of a large dog and the animal was about three to four feet at its shoulder. He estimates its weight to be about 300 to 400 pounds.
Though Vogel couldn’t take the bone to show and tell, she did get to brag just a little.
“My teacher was really, really excited and most of my classmates were surprised,” Vogel said. “And two of my friends got to see the fossil. They came over to my house and they went to where it was, and I showed them.”
Aby and Morgan have taken the remains to the Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque for further examination. However, Vogel will get to show the rest of her class her discovery.
Vogel’s mother, Christen, said her entire class will be spending the night at the museum sometime in April for a behind the scenes tour that will include a viewing of the fossil.