Why the Horse Is An Aristocrat 



He is the product of an ancestry 

 that goes back three million years 



THE earliest known ancestor of the 

 horse, called the Eohippus or 

 "Dawn Horse," is believed to have 

 existed more than three million years 

 ago, in what is known as the Eocene 

 Age, hundreds of thousands of years be- 

 fore the 

 coming 

 of man. 

 Fossil 

 remains 

 of that 

 animal 

 were 

 found in cer- 

 t a i n rock 

 strata in this 

 x; o u n t r y . 

 From the re- 

 mains of a 

 skeleton un- 

 covered in 

 New Mexico; 

 J. W. Gidley, 

 one of the sci- 

 entists con- 

 nected with 

 the United 

 States Na- 

 tional Muse- 

 um, in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 

 reconstructed 

 the interesting 

 model which is pictured here. 



This earliest known ancestor of the 

 horse was about the size of a small fox, 

 standing a little more than fourteen 

 inches high at the shoulder. He had four 

 toes on each of his front feet and three- 

 toed hind feet. His teeth were small and 

 short-crowned. He probably lived around 

 the margins of lakes, where the ground 

 was more or less soggy, and pastured on 

 grass. 



In the course of thousands of centuries, 

 his physique developed as his needs re- 



Above appears the highest type of horse, the result of 

 many centuries of careful breeding and selection. At his 

 feet is shown his earliest ancestor, the Eohippus, who 

 stood little more than fourteen inches high at the shoulder 



quired. His size increased and his skele- 

 ton underwent important changes in 

 accordance with his altered living condi- 

 tions and habits. 



The horse of the Oligocene period, 

 known as Mesohippus, was about the 



size of a sheep 

 and had three 

 toes on each 

 "v foot. In the 



Miocene, a 

 little later 

 period, there 

 were numer- 

 o u s large 

 horses, all 

 with three 

 toes on each 

 foot, but with 

 the middle 

 toe much 

 larger than its 

 companions. 

 Their teeth 

 were much 

 longer, more 

 powerful and 

 much deeper- 

 crowned. 



In a still 

 later period, 

 called the 

 Pliocene, were 

 found the first 

 horses with but a single toe on each foot, 

 which soon developed into a hoof. The 

 auxiliary toes, being useless, disappeared, 

 and only the stumps remained, traces of 

 which may be seen in modern horses, even 

 those of the highest stock. 



True horses, of the form and approxi- 

 mate size of the modern steed, were not 

 found until the Pleistocene period. These 

 were common all over North America and 

 Europe. Although they resembled the 

 modern horse, they were smaller in size, 

 and inferior in strength and fieetness. 



Those of us interested in science, engineering, invention, form a kind of guild. 

 We should help one another. The editor of The POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY is 

 willing to answer questions. 



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