I'ln.i \( I. 



Amonti all the animals of past and pn'scnl there is none so de^TvinK of our 

 interest and alTeetion as the horse. It is the niost usefnl of the domestic unimaU. 

 and has played the larg(>st jiart in the development of civilization. Smcc the dawn 

 of recorded history tlu> man with the horse has heen in the forefront of |)roKrehh. 

 ^^'hether leadinji the military ciNilizations of the past or hicakinn ground for the 

 industrial civilization of the present the pioneers and leaders of progress have always 

 made lart>;e us(> of this nohle animal. It is not too much to say that without his help 

 our ancestors in the Old World mifiht have advanced hut little further on the road to 

 civilization than did the inhabitants of the ancient semi-civilized states of Peru and 

 Mexico, where the horse was unknown, and travel, af^riculture ;ind milit.irv success 

 were limited by the eapaeity of unaided human streiifith. 



From another i)oint of view the horse is of peculiar interest, it is one of the 

 most perfect machines for swift running that exist among living animals and displays 

 throughout its organization the most exact and finished mechanism adapted to this 

 purpose. It is perhaps the finest example of what nature acting through millions 

 of years, has been able to accomplish in the way of adapting a large cjuadruped to 

 speed over long distances, and likewise of the extent to which man, during the few 

 thousand years that he has controlled its development, has been able to improve 

 upon nature, in the sense of adapting it to serve more exactly his own puri)ose. 



The history of this adaptation, continued over millions of years, constitutes the 

 evolution of the horse. Its records consist of the actual skeletons of the successive 

 stages in the development of the race. Buried in ancient river deposits, petrified 

 and preserved to our day in the successive geological strata, they have been discov- 

 ered and disinterred through the diligent search of scientists during the last fifty 

 3'ears. 



This Museum has taken especial interest in the evolution of the horse. The 

 records of this history are most completely jjreserved in the western United States, 

 and through the liberality of the trustees of the American Museum, and in particular 

 through special funds provided by the late \\'illiam C. Whitney, by Profes.sor Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn and by other trustees and friends of the Museum, Messrs. James R. 

 Keene, Randolph Huntington, F. K. Sturgis and others, we have obtained, from 

 expeditions, gifts and purchases, many thousand specimens of fossil species, illus- 

 trating numerous successive stages in horse ancestry; and a unique series illustrat- 

 ing the diverse breeds of the domesticated animal and the structure and growth of 

 its teeth and skeleton, so marvelously suited to its requirements. 



Such parts of the collection as might best serve to illustrate the subject have been 

 placed on exhibition in the hall of fossil mammals. These exhibits show 



1. The Evolution of the Horse in Nature 



2. The Evolution of the Horse under Domestkwtion 



The collections have been gathered together and arranged under the tlirection 

 and supervision of Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn. Scientific descriptions of parts 

 of the material have been published from time to time by Professor OsV)orn and his 

 assistants and an extensive monograph on the evolution of the horse is now in 

 preparation. 



W. I). M.vtthew 



American Museum of Natural History, March, 1913 



