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Horse evolution
Review of : Die Urpferde den Morgenröte. Ursprung und Evolution der Pferde, by
Jens Lorenz Franzen, 2007. Heidelberg: Elsevier / Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.
221 pp. Euro 48.00. ISBN-10: 3-8274-1680-9.
To those who invest time and mind in the observation of horses it is evident that
horses are fit for survival. The decline of Quaternary Equus caballus during the late
Pleistocene-Holocene mass extinction was averted by horses’ capability of
collaboration with their enemy, man. Domestication and selection through breeding
did not eliminate their inquisitive alertness and sensitivity, they are predisposed to
learning and form emotional ties with humans they trust. To ancient Eurasian
peoples, the taming of horses meant power and development. Man on horseback
travelled wider and faster, was stronger and more awe-inspiring than ever before.
Through history, horses worked with humans at all levels of society, and national
economies depended on them. Accompanying man, horses set hoof on new
continents, North America, South America and Australia, where they took land and
multiplied.
The cave paintings from the periglacial zone of late Quaternary Eurasia are some of
our sources of knowledge of the immediate ancestors of the extant horses, whether
“wild” or domestic. They all pertain to species Equus caballus. Jens Franzen
compares the famous painting of a horse from the Niaux cave in southern France,
believed to be 13.000-14.000 years old, with a photograph of a Przewalski horse. He
notes the relatively shorter skull and legs of the Pleistocene horse. This may well be
an adaptation to cold climate and rough terrain, like in modern Shetland ponies. They
are hardy little horses, compact in overall form, furry and at ease on cool North
Atlantic rocky islands. Some horses, in contrast to the Shetland ponies, are tall, slim
and nervous, while stout giants bred for hauling heavy loads rest peacefully in
themselves. Morphologic variability also characterised the horse clade