EvoiA Ti()\ OF rill': iioh'si': 



91 



entrance arc cliaiis indicatin.ii tlic successive periods of lime fioin the 

 Triassic to tlie TiMtiary. and the animal life which pertained to eacli. 

 Careful guides and exhaustive cards of explanation. photographs, and 

 window transparencies coml)ine to make tlie entire exhibit illuminative 

 and int crest int;". 



:j^ 



Restoration of Eohippus, the four-toed horse. This ancestor of the modern horse, scarcely 

 larger than the red fox, lived some three millions of years ago. It comes from the Lower Eocene 

 of Wyoming and New Mexico. 



The particular feature of this hall is the wonderful series in the cases 

 by the entrance and in the first alcoves on the right sho^ving the evolution 



of the horse in nature. The Museum is j ustly proud of this 

 Evolution collection. Not only is it the largest and. finest series of 



TT fossil horse skeletons in the world, but it is larger than the 



combined collections of all other institutions, and it con- 

 tains the earliest known ancestors of the horse, the little four-toed 

 Eohippus, which was no bigger than a fox and on four toes scampered over 

 Tertiary rocks. As wall be seen by an examination of the skeletons of the 

 horse and man in the Quaternary Hall, the modern horse w^alks on the 

 tip of his middle finger and toe. The front hoof bone corresponds to the 

 last joint of the third finger in the human hand, and the other bones of 

 the leg correspond bone for bone wdth the structure of the finger, wrist 

 and arm of man. In the modern horse the remaining fingers or toes of 

 the fore and hind foot have entirely disappeared, or remain only as 

 vestiges, the so-called '^ sphnt bones." The structure of the modern horse 



