History
of the horse:
In
the case of human beans, I believe their history begins
way before their evolution as a species. In fact begins
with the emergence of the first living form. In any case
since all of this still a mystery we will have to start
with what we know about the first horse ancestors.
The evolution is in fact a very interesting process, the
natural selection started to modify each different specie
base upon: the geographic area of habitat, the predators
against they were exposed, the food that was available
and many other factors achieving the formation of new
species and desapearing of those species that were not
strong enough to survive.
This is the reason why the anatomy of the horse is so
unique. It is the final result of the environmental influence
in which it developed.
The modern horse (Equus caballus) took aproximately 60
millon years to evolve. Its most recent ancestor: the
Eohippus, “dawn horse” was the one the gave origin to
the Equidae family. Within this family we encaunter: the
cebra, the donkey, the domestic horse likewise the donkeys
of Asia, Africa and the wild horse of Przewalski
The Hyracotherium, best known as the Eohippus was wery
different compared to the actual horse neither in size
nor in characteristics. Its average length was 35cm to
the cross, weigthed about 5.5 kilograms, practically like
a dog!! Its back was arched and instead of having a finger
protected with a helmet it had a hand with a beefy plant,
4 fingers in the front legs and 3 in the rear legs. Its
teeths were adapted for the consumption of soft tree leaves
and its eyed were also different due to the fact that
were located more towars the center of the head lacking
a good lateral vision (actually serves as a defensive
mechanism for the horse), but the Eohippus did not need
that because in the wild environment in which it lived
its camouflage was an effective way of evading predators.
Natural Bridges: A lot of people think that horses arrived
in America during conquer time, but this idea is not completely
true. During the Eoceno period , at the beginning of the
equine evolution, Northamerica was already inhabitated
by the ancestors of the Equus caballus. At that time the
American continent was connected to Europe and Asia through
natural bridges that lasted to the end of the glecier
era aproximately the year 9,000 B.C. These natural bridges
allowed that for more than a million years migrations
occurred among Equus species towards what we know as the
Old World. When the gleciers melted America was isolated
from other continents and thousands of years after, by
unknown causes, horses were extinguish completely from
this continent.
All four species related with the Equus were distributed
in the following way: Horses in Europe and west Asia,
donkeys and cebras norht and south of Africa and onagros
in the middle East.
Arrival to the new world: In 1492, Cristobal Colon arrive
to the american shores. By this historical fact new and
crucial events took place, one of them: the Equine reconquest
due to the fact that horses accounted for more than 25
million 400 hundred years after the American discovery.
Cristobal Colon during his first expedition left 30 horses
in the Spanish island and shortly after that this number
was multiplied considerably. Years after Hernan Cortes
arrive in Mexico with 16 horses, 11 studs and 5 mares.
Among this horses was El Morzillo that belonged and was
used by Cortes during a long time.
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