Horse

Question 1

Origin of horse

Answer 1

Eohippus&raquo_space;> Oligohippus&raquo_space;> Merychippus&raquo_space;> Pliohippus&raquo_space;> Modern horse

Eohippus
● 55-60 million years
● fox-sized, 4 toes
● teeth: eating leaves
● living in forest

Modern horse
● 2 million years
● walking on 1 toe (the 3rd) 
● eating grass 2
● living in grasslands

Question 2

The geographic isolation in the late Pleistocene →

development of distinct specieses

Answer 2

● Przewalski horse, true horses, asses (donkey, onager etc.), zebras

Question 3

Crosse of horse

Answer 3

• horses x other equid species → possible but hybrids are normallyMsterile, except for the Przewalski (66 chr.) (horse 64 chr., zebra 44 chr., donkey 62 chr.)

Ancestor of the true horse ( Equus caballus) is considered to be the wild horse (Equus ferus, last known representative was the tarpan - extinct)
»>Some sources claim that horses are linked to the Przewalski horse
True horses occupied Eurasian areas north of the great mountain
ranges
Wild horses did not exist in America, Africa, south Asia and Australia.
Different environmental conditions → two main types within the species (today: ‘cold-blooded’ and ‘hot-blooded’)

Question 4

Domestication of horse

Answer 4

Archaeological findings indicate
that horses were originally
hunted (and maybe
husbanded) as a food animal One of the last mammals to be
domesticated from around
3-4000 BC in the Eurasian
steppes (rich sources in
Ukraine and Kazakhstan) Dating of domestication is disputed By 2000 BC there was a sharp increase in the number of horse
bones found in human settlements in northwestern Europe,
indicating the spread of domesticated horses throughout the
continent.

Question 5

Changing roles of horse

Answer 5

Later used for draught and riding (warfare) Spreading domesticated herds were supplemented with
local wild horses During the mutual history of humans and horse, the horse
has had a very high-ranking status, an aristocrat of
livestock, irrespective of culture, age and people.