THE PRIMITIVE HORSE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 678, 5 March 1903, Page 16

THE PRIMITIVE HORSE.

’ Some weeks ago a report camo from the | • West that the party supported by the | ■ William C. Whitney Fund, which is ex- | i ploi'ing for relics of horses had ( ‘ made “important discoveries. The fossils j I of a herd of live small horses had been ; i found. They belonged to the species of ; i three-toed horses, which hitherto had I j been known only from fragments of sculls . i and limbs. The party now in the West i phad found four fore limbs and ten rear ; I limbs in a perfect state of preservation, ’ ' several skulls and one skeleton nearly | I complete. I he fossils were shipped to the i ' Museum of Natural History, New York. I ‘ Prof. Osborm of the museum, said that ; the find would add an important stage to : the history and development of the horse in America. I 'there was a period when naturalists l looked upon the horse as a very isolated I and singular creature, because it walked, so differently from the other animals, and the naturalists, therefore made it an order bv itself, under the title of “Solid hoof. Prof. W. H. Flower, M.S., director oi the natural history department of the British museum, asserts . that knowledge obtained during the past fifty years as to the comparative anatomy of the horse, and as to the myriads of extinct forms of animal life, has shown that the horse was only one of a large group of animals. The professor says that he is compelled to ’ assume Darwin’s theory of derivation or descent of one form of anima] from another. The group of animals known as the hoofed animals are divided into two I great and distinct groups. One group comprises the horse, and its most immed- ; iate allies, such as the donkey and the ■ variou’s! forms; of zebras, which are practically almost the same in their structure

as the horse. More is known about the , ancient history of this group because in early years it was far more abundant in the world than at present. It seems to be on the decrease, dying out as it were, and probably would become extinct but for donkeys and horses being so valuable to man. Prof. Flower asserts that the horse family of the group was that branch which had undergone .by far the greatest changes. It w r as, too, the most interesting , branch of the family. It has been continu- , ally changing from its ancestors, and the ; points in which the horse differed were j very numerous. It had been gradually ad- j apting itself to the changed conditions of , the times. ; It had gradually increased in size, and : especially in the length of the neck ; its j legs had lengthened and its toes had disappeared. ’I here were certain alterations . in the structure c?f the bones, but mainly ; the alterations were in two points in the ; teeth and the feet, both of which nad been , adapting the horse for the altered condi- 1 tions of his life. So great had been the j change that specimens could be traced ; back, showing that at one time some of I them were no bigger than a hare. Now it i lis difficult to find anything more perfect . 1 in its whole organisation than the horse. ■ I It has ceased to be anything like the tapir 1 and as the horse was when it lived in ■ woods, forests, by lakes and on marshy I land. It had become changed to an aniI mal destined to inhabit the dry open plain, I far away from the cover oi woods and from the swampy ground, into which its I feet might sink, and also destined to live ! upon the food of the open plain dry, ■ hard, harsh herbage that grows in open i spaces. The modification of the teeth has : now reached the point at which it is dif- ! ficult to conceive anything better adapted for grinding, hard herbage, anti the feet have got to the point which specially facilitates speed over hard ground. The foot has been modified into an organ simply far support, and for that purpose it Js about as perfect as anything can be. Jne whole of the changes were to fit him for ■ the sphere of usefulness he was to occupy in future ages, and were obviously advantageous to him in the changed conditions of his life. It is a fact tl.-at the earnest Horse known to naturalists had five toes. I’.V 1 ’ ther along down the ages came the Hipi parion, an animal almost a horse, winch had three toes, but only the. centra] toe rested on t-ne ground. In this connection it is interesting to note that Nature sometimes reaches hack through untold ages, and reproduces in the. horse of. to-day some of the characteristics oi his toed ancestor. Horses have been born in comparatively recent Limes with three toes on one foot. In .1883 there was a horse m : Boston with eight hoofs, the second, which j took the place oi the hrst toe, being ali most as perfectly developed as the third j and fourth. .... I Whatever the horse was primitively, i since he became an essential pail of I civilisation his intelligence has been so ! marked by every nation, ancient and mo--1 dern, that he has always been taken as a ■ symbol of the human intellect or underl standing. Hence in the mythology of all • nations he has been used as the symbol or ; the intellectual people. —■( ’ Breeder and Sportsman.”)