The Przewalski’s Horse, which lives on the steppes of central Asia, likely deviated from the lineage leading to modern domesticated horses some 50,000 years ago. (Photo: Joe Ravi)
The Przewalski’s Horse, which lives on the steppes of central Asia, likely deviated from the lineage leading to modern domesticated horses some 50,000 years ago. (Photo: Joe Ravi)
Wasn’t that during or just after an Ice age time? Where would it or it’s ancestors lived.. (no where to graze)?
Wait I thought horses weren’t indigineous to the American continents and that they came over with the “invading European hordes”??? Or is this just a different “prehistoric” subspecies?
Wasn’t Dysart the name of Richard Burton’s character in Equus? Just wondering.
“Among the team’s findings is that the genus Equus — which includes all horses, donkeys, and zebras — dates back more than 4 million years, twice as long ago as scientists had previously believed.”
So estimating from the present genome about the past genome was widely erroneous? Interesting in its implications.
Was it a friendly horse? Would it communicate in morse?
I wonder how much of this new “evidence” is speculation
Wouldn't the various ice ages since then with deep and repeated glaciation of the Yukon have completely destroyed any remains like this?
Something for Sarah Jessica Parker to look up on Ancestry.com.
It might be the missing link tying her to John Kerry.
What’s with the Sarah Jessica Parker picture?
Wilburrrrrr!
Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably by crossing the Bering land bridge) 2 to 3 million years ago. Following that original emigration, there were additional westward migrations to Asia and return migrations back to North America, as well as several extinctions of Equus species in North America.
The last prehistoric North American horses died out between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene, but by then Equus had spread to Asia, Europe, and Africa.
(snip)