Eohippus

A pair of small furry creatures forages in a primeval woodland on the pebble strewn shore of a forest pond. Leafy plants carpet the ground between the trunks of thick trees while mists drift through the air. One of the creatures, a darker coated one, grazes on the forest plants. Its lighter furred companion, however, seems to have been alerted by some sound in the woods.

These are Eohippus, or "dawn horse", the earliest known ancestor of the modern horse after the extinction event that ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Sometimes they are also called hyracotherium, but that name seems to apply to a different genus now. They were the size of a medium dog and was found in North America.

For this artwork, I had a request for an unspecified Equis. I decided to go with the earliest version I could find. Via, Daz Studio, I used a eurohippus model by Dinoraul that I thought looked more like eohippus and added fur using LookAtMyHair then constructed the rest of the scene in Vue. Post production was done in Gimp and color enhanced using Photomatix.

A disclaimer about my paleoart:

When it comes to paleoart, the images I create favor 'art' more than 'paleo'. While I try my best to depict animals as accurately as possible, I'm make no claim that they 100% scientifically accurate. The same goes for the environment I depict them in. I am primarily interested in creating aesthetically pleasing images and paintings. Scientific accuracy comes second behind artistic expression.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge