evolution of the horse For many people, the horse family remains the classic example of evolution. As more and more horse fossils have been found, some ideas about horse evolution have changed, but the horse family remains a good example of evolution. In fact, we now have enough fossils of enough species in enough genera to examine details of evolutionary change. Evolution does not occur in a straight line toward a goal, like a ladder; rather, evolution is like a branching bush, with
Branching out The evolution of horses over the last 50 million years, is remarkable really. Horses used to look so different back then, its amazing to look at the difference now. Because there’s so much information on each and every type of horse that the modern horse started off as and a lot of researchers have put the information on timelines and graphs for people to view. It kinda resembles a tree if you look at the picture. It has so many different branches. To make this easy to understand this
The fossil record of horses extends back to an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae, a dog-like ancestor 55 to 42 million years ago in the genus Hyracotherium in North America. Hyracotherium had a primitively little face , four-toed forefeet, three-toed hind feet, an arched back, small brain, and higher hindquarters than forehand
Early horses evolved from tiny, four-toed, forest dwellers that were possibly no more than a foot tall roaming through the forests of North America. For more than half of their history horses remained as small forest browsers. Changes in climate conditions permitted grasslands to grow and from these changes many new species of horses evolved as well as the human animal relationship. All mammals including horses at one point in time shared a common feature and that was five toes. “Over millions of
1. Wax: Biological waxes are esters of long-chain (C14 to C36) saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with long-chain (C16 to C30) alcohols. Their melting points (60 to 100 _C) are generally higher than those of triacylglycerols.In plankton, the free-floating microorganism sat the bottom of the food chain for marine animals, and waxes are the chief storage form of metabolic fuel. Waxes also serve a diversity of other functions related to their water-repellent properties and their firm consistency
he horse, Equus ferus caballus, is a subspecies from the family Equidae. Over the past 50 million years, through survival adaptations, the common horse has evolved from a relatively small, multi-toed animal into the large, single toed animal known today (Wilson,. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore). Domestication of the common horse is believed to have started around 4000 BC, becoming common during the early 3000 BC (Wilson,. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore).
The discovery of genome sequencing by Fredrick Sanger and his team of researchers in the early 70’s gave rise to one of the most empirical research methods that was ever to exist. This revolutionary research technique has allowed scientists to finally encode organisms down to their most basic properties; helping massively in our understanding of pathways, reactions and functions of organisms. The technique involves analysing the DNA of an organism’s genome and therefore all the genes that compose
Anatomy A way to identify a fish is by their body structure, they have fins and a backbone. The anatomical adaptation of fins helps them survive and makes them and marine animal unique in that they use them to maintain their position, move, steer, and stop. Most fish have scales and breathe though gills. Most fish also have a mucus layer that helps them prevent infections. With in what we consider “fish,” there are many that don’t very much look like they are earth creatures. The strangest fish