FOSSIL HORSES OF THE AGE OF MAN 



THK A^c of Man, or (Quaternary Period, is the last and by far the 

 shortest of tlie ^reat (hvisions of jreolojrieaj time. It inekides the 

 (ireal Ice Aj^e or (Ihieial Kpoeh (I^leistoeene), when heavy eon- 

 tinental «!;laciers covei-ed the northeiii |)arts of Europe and North Ameri- 

 ca, and the Recent l-'poch. of moic modeiate climate dining- wliicli ci\iH- 

 zation has aiiseii. 



In the eail>' i)art of tlie (^uateinaiy i\'riod. wild species of horse 

 were to l)e found on every continent except Australia. Remains of these 

 true native lioi'ses have been found l)urie(l in strata of this a^e in all parts 

 of the United States, in Alaska, in Mexico, in iM'uadol'. Hiazil and Argen- 

 tina, as well as in lMU()p(\ Asia and Africa. All these horses were much 

 like the living- species and most of them are included in the <i-enus Eqinis. 

 Mr. J. W. (lidley, in char^-e of the American Museum expedition in 

 northern Texas, discovered in 1899 a number of more or less comjilete 

 skeletons of a sj)ecies of fossil horse, Eqnus scotti, in an old i-iver deposit 

 on Rock Ci-eek in Donley County. These are the most complete speci- 

 mens known of the extinct horses which inhabited this country at the 

 beginning of the Ice Age. A mounted skeleton and several skulls have 

 been placed on exhibition, and their near resemblance to the modern 

 animal appears at a glance. The difference from the domestic horse is 

 chiefly in proportions: the skull is shorter with deeper jaws, the legs 

 rather short and the feet small in proportion to the body. In these char- 

 acters this fossil horse resembles an overgrown zebra rather than a domes- 

 tic horse. We know nothing of its coloring. It may have been striped, 

 and in this case would have been verj^ zebra-like; but there are some 

 reasons for believing that it was not prominently striped. The bones are 

 peti'ified, brittle and heavy, the animal matter of the bone having entirely 

 (lisap[)eared and having been partly replaced bv mineral matter. They 

 are not much changed in color however, and are so ])erf(M*tly pi-eserved 

 that they look almost like recent bone. 



AH the I'emains of these native horses which have been found in 

 America hav(^ Ihhmi petrified more or less completely. This means that 

 they have l)e(^n buried for many thousands of years, for true petrifaction 

 is an exceedingly slow process. This condition serves as an easy means of 

 distinguishing tliem fi'om boiu^s of the domestic horse, found buried in 

 the earth. These cannot in any case have been buried for m()r(^ than 

 three or foui- centuries, and have not had time to petrify. 



Remains of these fossil horses fi'om various ])arts of tlie I'nited 

 States ai-e shown in the counter cases. One very rich locality is on the 

 Niobrara River in Nebraska, another is in central Oregon. Many sepa- 

 rate teeth and bones have Ihhmi found in the phosphate mines near 



