Researchers discovered that Botai horses were, in fact, the ancestors of Przewalski’s horses, an endangered population of more than 500 wild horses living today in Mongolia.Credit: © Yantar, Shutterstock
Posted on 02/06/2022 7:10:02 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Horses have been intrinsically entwined with human history for the past five millennia, acting as an early means of rapid transport and playing a key part in agriculture, warfare and sport.
Despite this, major decades-long mysteries have surrounded where and how modern horses were first domesticated. Yet a large international team of zooarchaeologists, historians and geneticists, all experts in horse evolutionary history, has recently started coming up with some answers. The results are showing just how much this can reveal about both the horse itself and about human history and culture—and how much we still have to find out.
"Horses are perhaps the animals that have had the most influence on human history," said palaeogeneticist Ludovic Orlando, director of the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse, and a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. "They gave us speed and the way to transport things at a pace that we couldn't reach with our own legs."
...And horses have left their mark on our everyday transport and industry of today, he added. "If you think about what we call horsepower for cars, it doesn't come out of the blue; it's because it was a metric for measuring how fast a vehicle would be with respect to the horse," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Researchers discovered that Botai horses were, in fact, the ancestors of Przewalski’s horses, an endangered population of more than 500 wild horses living today in Mongolia.Credit: © Yantar, Shutterstock
Grant money is forever!! Wonder how many are getting what. I’m sue it’s in the millions.
Pure guesswork on their part. But it sure pays!
They need to study throat singers.
I just realized my virgin has a horn. Well that’s different.
Numnut writer, it was a metric for measuring how much fast work a vehicle would do with respect to the horse," he said.
As a horse lover (and former horse owner, until the fat little guy died a couple of years ago at the age of 35!!!), I loved this article. Very interesting, thanks for posting, and Doc (my horse) always knew that he came from a noble line of critters responsible for civilization.
35? That’s a really, really old age for a horse.
I was wondering how long before someone else spotted that. I left it in because I like to make my own fun. ;^)
Oh look, it’s the same stupid comment you make ever so often.
He had a great life, and a long, long retirement once he became sway backed and unrideable. He lived at a barn where the owner runs a riding program, and because he was a gentle, patient horse, all the little girls loved bringing him treats and even painting his toes with glitter. I think that was why he lived so long!
:^)
I can’t help but think that there is a sampling error if their conclusion that the eclipsing of Neolithic hunter gatherers by R1a (Yamnaya?) took place without horses. Chicks dig a dude with a mobility, horse or wheels depending upon the epoch, which to me accounts best for the disappearance of Neolithic hunter gatherer dna.
I agree, that was the mane reason.
Hay!
The first man who decided it might be a good idea to mount a horse and see what happens was a very brave man. Even if his life did have a sudden and tragic end, he paved the trail for others to follow.
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