John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: 45 Million Years of Mammalian Menageries. The artwork features the trasnsition from a forest-dominated habitat to a more open woodland, and eventually to open sagebrush steppe. The unique plants and animals depicted in this piece offer clues to this environmental transition. The Ekgmowechashala (“little cat man” in Sioux), a small lemur-like primate with teeth specialized to eat soft fruits and insects; two perissodactyls, the three-toed horse Miohippus annectens and the two-horn rhino Diceratherium annectens. Miohippus annectens was a small horse that had an adult weight between 25 to 30 kg and evolved into lineages with traits suited for either forest or open grasslands; two carnivorans: the false sabertoothed cat Nimravus brachyops and the little “bone crushing” dog Cynarctoides lemur.

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: 45 Million Years of Mammalian Menageries. The artwork features the trasnsition from a forest-dominated habitat to a more open woodland, and eventually to open sagebrush steppe. The unique plants and animals depicted in this piece offer clues to this environmental transition. The Ekgmowechashala (“little cat man” in Sioux), a small lemur-like primate with teeth specialized to eat soft fruits and insects; two perissodactyls, the three-toed horse Miohippus annectens and the two-horn rhino Diceratherium annectens. Miohippus annectens was a small horse that had an adult weight between 25 to 30 kg and evolved into lineages with traits suited for either forest or open grasslands; two carnivorans: the false sabertoothed cat Nimravus brachyops and the little “bone crushing” dog Cynarctoides lemur.