The Evolution of a Horse Throughout history, humans have depended on the horse. Horses have contributed to the growth of humankind as transportation, farm workers, and battle steeds. They have been trained to support humans in many ways. When did this relationship begin? At what point did the horse become a vital part of human society? Exploring the evolution of the horse can help to answer these questions. A mammal with hooves that have an odd number of toes on the rear feet are known as odd-toed ungulates. The middle toe on each rear hoof is usually larger than the ones next to them. Horses are members of the odd-toed ungulates which includes the horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses. They are relatively large grazing animals with …show more content…
Four of the toes had early proto-hooves. The back legs had small hooves on three of the five toes. The toes were padded like a dog’s toes. The Hyracotherium had three incisors, one canine, four premolars, and three grinding molars on each jaw, which was a typical tooth structure of early mammals who were omnivorous browsers (Hunt 4). Eohippus survived for about twenty million years with relatively few evolutionary changes (Wikipedia 7). These animals lived in a sub-tropical climate and ate soft fruits and the leaves of trees.
During the middle to late Eocene and into the Oligocene epoch several other members of the equids, with distinct evolutionary changes, existed including the Orohippus, Epihippus, Mesohippus, and Miohippus. The Orohippus developed from the Hyracotherium and shared many of the same traits. One major change was that the first and second toes disappeared. Another significant change occurred in the teeth. The last premolar changed to become like a grinding molar. Also the crests were more defined showing that the Orohippus’s diet had changed to a tougher plant material. During the middle Eocene a descendant of Orohippus appeared. The Epihippus still resembled a dog-like animal. It had four padded toes on the front leg, and three on the back leg. However, the teeth changed more drastically with two of the premolars changing to grinding molars. Now there were five grinding cheek teeth with low crowns. As
Equine conformation evaluates the degree of correctness of a horse's overall structural correctness. Undesirable conformation can limit and restraint the amount of work and force you can apply to your horses upon showing, competing or just leisure activities. When inspecting a horse's conformation it is crucial to fracture things down into five main groups. The five main criteria include:balance, structural correctness, way of going, muscling, and breed/sex character.
Analysis of a poem- Horses by Edwin Muir It is said that one should forget the past and live in the present It is said that one should forget the past and live in the present. However, Edwin Muir’s ‘Horses’ is a poem of past memories only. The interesting part is that it deals with many conflicts and issues which are prevalent even today.
Other than this remarkable jump, the physical features stayed relatively constant over those 1.4 million years(Washburn, McCown 1972). Some anthropologists say that their supra-orbital ridges were slightly more pronounced than previously, cranial bones were heavier and there was still no protruding chin but their molars had decreased in size (Washburn, McCown 1972).
Horse’s have developed into highly specialised locomotor machines. Modified themselves to travel long distances at a moderate speeds and capability of shorter distances at higher speeds. The most efficient running machine that has evolved with many structural adaptions for untiring rapid progress on the ground so that they run long distances efficiently and changing of muscle size and grouping all suggests locomotor adaption (Williams, 2013).
The horse (Equus ferus caballus)[2][3] is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.
There is a trail down the road in Delaware where I enjoy taking my dog for a walk. It is a beautiful, five-mile loop traversing cornfields, thick patches of forest, steep hills and flowing streams; a wonderful place to escape the hustle and bustle of the suburban lifestyle and spend some time amongst the peacefulness of nature. It is not a complete escape, however, for I am not the only person that knows of the trail- it seems to also be a favorite of horseback riders. Often times I will encounter a rider or two at some point during my walk and, without fail, I will be in awe of the size and majesty of the horse. What an incredible, gentle beast it is. Standing next to a horse, you cannot help but gawk at the bulging, toned muscles and long, agile legs. It is truly an athlete with a rare combination of strength and speed. Yet, they are gentle and kind and have therefore been joined at the hip with humans; today, nearly all horses have been domesticated. So I find myself
The Quarter horse is a common breed that does many different kinds of sports. The main sports that the Quarter horse is found to compete in is rodeo events, horse racing, and some jumping events. These horses are very common in the United States especially for these different sports that they do (Blocksdorf, 2018).
They have nails in all digits except for the grooming claw on the second toe. Their arms tend to be shorter than their legs, and they have strong hind legs for jumping, storing the elastic energy, which allows them to jump up to 6.6 feet.
The Eocene era was the one that followed Paleocene period. There was mild climate during this time despite North America and Europe breaking the land. There was increased forest vegetation, sunny conditions and rainfall that started being observed at the poles. This period comprised the omomyids and the adapids primate groups. There happened to have differences and some similarities. Both happened to possess features linked with living the modern primates like grasping feet and hands that had nails rather than claws. They both had a postorbital bar that was complete (Soligo, 2007).
Order Perissodactyla * The name Perissodactyla means ‘odd- toed’ or ‘odd-hoofed’, and as the name suggests, this order contains 1 or 3 toed mammals. * In all species, digit III is the most prominent in all feet. *Functional axis of the foot passes through the 3rd toe. * The skull is elongated.
eocenicus and P. bitterfeldi) with one other species, P. popovi Herczek, which is from a younger Miocene Dominican amber, one can notice that firstly, the latter differs due to the very narrow form of the body (4.6х as long as wide), different coloration (the head and pronotum pale yellow, the mesonotum, scutellum and hemelytra ferrugineous, the lateral side of scutellum, the basal part of the corium and cuneus pale) and smaller size (2.4 mm). Moreover, P. popovi has a longer head (1.85x as wide as long), a shorter scutellum that is only slightly (1.25x) longer than the mesoscutum and also a less thickened hind femora (4x as long as wide). on the other hand, all of these fossil species have several common features, e.g., the proportions of the 1st and 2nd antennal segments, the length of the posterior and anterior margins of the pronotum (P. bitterfeldi and P. popovi), the width and length of the pronotum (P. bitterfeldi and P. popovi), scutellum and mesoscutum (P. eocenicus and P. bitterfeldi), the length of the mesoscutum+scutellum and commissura clavale (P. eocenicus, P. bitterfeldi and P. popovi), the width and length of the hind femur (P. eocenicus and P. bitterfeldi) and the length of the tibia and femur of the hind leg (P. eocenicus, P. bitterfeldi and P.
A total of 36 specimen were analyzed, thirty Triceratops and six Torosaurus. The cluster diagram was completed and split into three phases. The first phase, which is juvenile, includes changes such as size increase and major changes in skull shape. The postorbital horns become long and massive too. The second phase, subadult, involves fusion of the skull, development of the surface texture, and a slowing growth. The last phase, adult, involves fusion of the epoccipitals, epijugal and rostrum. Once they had all specimens placed in the different phases they could see that the Triceratops was spread throughout all phases along with the few Torosaurus specimen. This shows that “skulls assigned to Torosaurus are not consistently more mature than those assigned to Triceratops” (Longrich and Field). Next they discuss the inability of Horner and Scannella to see these trends, due to their methodology, bone remolding in particular. According to Longrich and Field, the degree of remolding even varies within a single bone. Which would mean attempting to estimate the age of an animal could get a paleontologist different answers from different parts of the same fossil. The two also strongly believed that intermediates had to exist for there to be a adult and juvenile distinction. Epiparietals further negate this claim by saying that no
The legs are short, with the hind feet being significantly longer than the forefeet, and possess five digits; the first four are connected by webbing and the fifth is free. The forefeet have four long, flexible digits with no webbing and a vestigial thumb. Because of their dexterous forepaws, coypu can excavate soil to construct sometimes complex burrow systems within riparian areas and handle very small food items (Woods et al. 1992; D’Elia, 1999). The tail is long and rounded with a scaly texture and scantily haired (D’Elia. 1999). In addition to having webbed hind feet, coypu have several other adaptations conducive to their semi-aquatic lifestyle. The eyes, ears, and nostrils of coypu are set high on their heads. Furthermore,
Ever since I was a child I knew that I wanted to work with animals. Horses, in particular, have always fascinated me. After much begging, pleading, years of convincing, and always working hard to save up money, I convinced my parents to allow me to buy a horse. To me, Indie was the most beautiful quarter horse I could have ever dreamed of getting. Since our purchase of Indie, we have acquired another horse, Sherman, and a pony, Tucker. Although the horses have always been hard work, they were worth every sweaty hot summer evening of mucking out the stalls and frigid winter mornings of carrying water to the trough in order to avoid freezing our hoses. After all, I used to dream of being a veterinarian and helping all kinds of animals in some way.
Horses are incredible creatures that have shaped history around the globe. There are over 150 different breeds of horses that have countless skills. Between their extraordinary intelligence and obedience, horses have worked at the mercy of humans for many different reasons. Their expertise ranges from being one of the fastest modes of transportation on land, to helping fight in wars, herd cattle and even serve as a source of recreation or sport (Duren). Horses have been present throughout all of history up until present day specifically in religions or cultures, war, and their uses in modern times.