“Originated” in this case is not relevant to my point because there were no wild horses in North America for thousands of years before they were brought over from Europe.
A species of equidae did evolve in North America, but it is not related to the modern horse.
From the wikipedia article.
“Paleozoologists have been able to piece together a more complete outline of the evolutionary lineage of the modern horse than of any other animal. Much of this evolution took place in North America, where horses originated but became extinct about 10,000 years ago.”
“Wild horses were known since prehistory from central Asia to Europe, with domestic horses and other equids being distributed more widely in the Old World, but no horses or equids of any type were found in the New World when European explorers reached the Americas. When the Spanish colonists brought domestic horses from Europe, beginning in 1493, escaped horses quickly established large feral herds.”
So today, there are no indigenous “wild” horses in North America. They all descend from domestic breeds brought here for other continents.
Yep. But 500 years is enough for some genetic drift. Human's have been breeding horses through that whole period to accomplish certain things humans value: bigger draft horses, faster racing horses, more fancy looking show horses.
But meanwhile the wild horses of been following their own Darwinian breeding program.
So, by now I think there are some differences. (I"m not an expert on this, I could be wrong).
I"ve seen big herds of them in Eastern Oregon. They are very cool and I am happy that they run wild in the West. The other animals in the area are antelope. People compared them with cows, but in terms of being able to live in pretty dry country, I think they are more like antelope than cows.
Horses, mammoths and other megafauna mysterious disappeared from North America. It couldn't have been the Paleo-Indians' fault, since we know that the Indians never killed more than they needed. Europeans must have somehow made it across the Atlantic, wiped out the megafauna, and then went back to Europe. Only reasonable explanation.
/s