ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 3 December 1913, Page 3

ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE

A German naturalist, Dr Otto Antonius, has recently published some very interesting investigations concern-, ing the origin of the horse. As .is well known even Darwin was still of the opinion that the horse was descended from one single wild race, .and the Russian Prejevalsky actually succeeded in discovering a. species -of Avild .horse .in Asia. But in the meantime our palaeontologists have succeeded in proving that the modern domestic horse is" the doscenda-nt not of one but of several wild races.. The hunters of the Stone Age chased warious jkinds of wild horses long before an attempt was made to domesticate the animal in question. This has been definitely proved by a mimiber of rough reproductions which have laeen pc.eser.ved until the present day. ,Amoitg these we find drawings of the most various kinds of horses, from the small and delicate limbed animal to weighty and heavilybuilt charger; on the whole there seem to have been four original races of wild horses. The point in winch we, naturally, take the greatest Interest i& the otigin of the Arab horsej from wiidch all our noblest steeds are directly or indirectly descended. Unfoi-tuuately, ithe question of the origin of the Atvab horse still remains unsolved, but iJiere still exists in Western Europe a small and fine-limbed horse which corresponds, ;i« all important points, with the usually accepted picture of the 'original Arab steed. Tliis race of horse is h>.v from .extinct; we refer to the v'r>'kku<nm .Celtic pony found in variov-: . xi-fcs <>f vGreat Britain. which n .v.:,, ~v.. hi many points, the Arab type,' taid is probably morel closely connected with ihat breed of -horse than Jias hitherto Jboen supposed. Furthermore, £he lilthuanian, or Russian p©nj T, se&ms alap to belong, more or le*s, to .tjke eamje type. Xhe more heavilj'-built pony of the northern eountsies leads us back 1© another group of ancestors from which, our present domestic horse has sprung- i From the northern pony we tome to; the heavier types 4>f the equine race. These sire usually considered as being a Western race of bonse, but this is not absolutely correct, as during the qtiarternary this race of horse wai known in Asia, whereas Europe, at the same tinap, contained horses of a dittinctlv Odantal type. However, thj heavily-built- type of house seems only to have been ' domesticated in Europe. The older types of this race are specially distinguished by their great size. Tlfo war horp of the Middle Ages, whose splendid appearance is familiar to MS from m«ny a picture, was undoubtedly bred out of this typ 0.