EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE i i 



part. The W'iKl Horse of prehistoric Europe, a small r 

 short-legged anil shaggy-haired, was domesticated by man. a fact 

 that is known from the rude drawings scratched on bone or ivory 



by men of the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age. But the Domes- 

 tie Horse now in use is derived chiefly fn>m the Asiatic ran-, al- 

 though it is probable that in some breeds there is a considerable 

 strain ^i this shaggy, short-legged European race, and it is pos- 

 sible also that African races may have been domesticated and to 



some extent mixed with the Asiatic 1 Species. The domesticated 

 Ass is a descendant ^i the African species. 



The Evolution of the Horse. 



The history ^i the evolution of the Horse through the Ter- 

 tiary period or Age of Mammals affords the best known illustra- 

 tion in existence of the doctrine of evolution by means of natural 

 selection and the adaptation of a race of animals to its environ- 

 ment. The ancestry of this family has been traced back to 

 nearly the beginning of the Tertiary without a single important 

 break. During this long period of time, estimated at nearly 

 three millions of years, these animals passed through important 

 changes in all parts of the body, but especially in the teeth and 

 feet, adapting them more and more perfectly to their particular 

 environment, namely the open plains of a great plateau region 

 with their scanty stunted herbage, which is the natural habitat 

 of the I [i >r- 



In the series of ancestors of the Horse we can trace every step 

 in the evolution of those marked peculiarities of teeth and fret 

 which distinguish the modern Horse from an ancestor whir! 

 little su^ests a horse that, when its remains were first found 

 f« »rty years ago, the animal was named by the great pala-< »nt< >1< gist 

 Richard Owen, the Hyracotherium or "Coney-like B< 



relati< »n to the I [< >rse was n« »t at that time suspeeted by Pr< >fi 



n. and was recognized by scientific men only when several of 



the intermedial* ii it and its modern descendant 



had been di :. On the other hand this first ancestor of the 



Horse line ; lifficult to distinguish from the contemporary 



and rl. and indicates how all 



