THE HORSE: PAST AND PRESENT 



In 1891 the American Museum began its long series of explorations 

 and studies upon the evolution of the horse. It now contains the 

 most complete collection of fossil horses in the world; also a very 

 remarkable collection of mounted skeletons and models of modern 

 horses, including both wild and domestic breeds. 



The ancestry of the horse has been traced back through successive 

 stages represented by fossil skeletons to small progenitors with four 

 toes on the fore feet and three on the hind feet, with short-crowned, 

 simple teeth and small brain, but always possessed of great relative 

 speed. 



What may be called the fossil breeds are found to be specialized as 

 are modern breeds into exceedingly swift running as well as into slow- 

 moving types, into giant horses exceeding the very largest existing 

 percherons, and into diminutive horses smaller even than the most 

 diminutive Shetland. The comparison of fossil and living types is 

 therefore most interesting and instructive. 



An epitome of the transformation of the hind leg from the hock 

 joint down shows the gradual increase in size of the median hoof and 

 the consequent diminution of the side hoofs which are slowly raised 

 above the ground through a very long period, hanging at the sides as 

 dew claws but finally withdrawn up the sides of the cannon bone as 

 the " splints." 



The first important step in this collection was in 1894 when the very 

 ancient four-toed horse of the Wind River mountains (Eohippus ven- 

 ticolus} was presented by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt and others. 



In 1900-1903, three annual expeditions were fitted out on a gen- 

 erous scale especially to collect the ancestors of the horse; this was 



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