The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-11-19
ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE
HIs GENEALoGV ~ LONGER THAN
THAT or NEW Y0R<'s 900.
Was once a Little AnimRt-tIad Four
Tees aud Was nat slightly BiEEer
Than Fox-DIrect Evidence Of
Descent.

was Oncr LlttAe Animht-h"" run
Tees aud Was nat slightly Bigger
Than "a Fox-DIrect Evidence OF
Descent.
Frederick A. Lucas In McCiure's Maya
riuo. presents In a popular way the scien-
tlho evidence golng TO show ~ decent Of
the horse from little animal with four
toes and uttIe bigger than fox The
family records Of the horse reach back
wards for something like COCOON years.
The carly horse-we may call him 20
by courtesy. although he was then far
from being a true horse-was an insigulh-
cant ntth creature. apparently far less
ukciy to succeed in life's race than his
bulky competitors and vet. by making the
most Of their opportunities. his descend
ants have survived. while most OF theirs
have dropped by the wayside. and m
ally. by the aid OF man. the horse has be
come spread over The length and breadth
Of the habltable globe
Now right here II may be asked How
DO we know that the little hyracothere
was the proEenitor OF the horse and how
can Il be- shown that there Is any bond 81
kinship between him and. for example,
the great French Pereherong There IL
only one way IN which We can obtain this
knowledge. and but one method by which
the relationship can be shown. am that is
~ collecting the fossil remains q animals
long extinct and comparing them with the
| bones Of the recent horse. branch OF
science known ae Paleoutology. u has
| taken very long time 20 gather The nee
eaHary evidence. and it has taken a vast
| amount Of hard work IN our Western ter
/ ritorisa Tor the country that g. as hot a.
/ Hades. watered by stsEusnt alkaii pools.
Is almost invariably the richest IN foe
| siis." Likewise Il has called for the eN-
pendituFe Of much time and more patience
10 put together some Of the petrined EVIL
| dence fraKmsntaTy IN every sense % the
word and get Il into such hape that Il
| could be handled by the anatomst Still.
| the work has been done and. link by iiuk
the chain has been constructed that unltes
| the horse % to-day with the horse Of very
many yesterdays.
Remains In Remote Ages
The FIRST links IN this chain are the re-
mains Of the bronze age and those found
among tho ruins % the ancient Swiss
lake dwellings: hut earlier stiil than these
are the bones Of horses found abunda rtiy
/ In Northern Europe Asia and America
/ The individual bones and teeth Of some
/ 81 these horses are scarcely distinguish
able from those % to-day u fact noted
| In the name Equus fraternus. applet 90
/ one species. and when the teeth alone
are found Il Il At times practi ally impos-
sible TO say whether they belong 10 a fos-
| 81 horse or TO q modern animal. But
/ when enough scattered bones are gathe Cd
20 make a fairly complete skeleton Il be-
comes evident that the fossil horse had a
proportionately larger head and smaller
| feet than his existing relative. and that
| he was a little more like an ass or zebra
| for the latter. spite his gay cont. is a
| near relative Of thc lowly ass. Moreover
| primitive man made sketches Of the prim-
tive horse just a. he did % the man
moth and these indicate that the horse
OF those days was something like an over
grown Shetland pony. low and heavily
built. large headed and rouRh-coated. For
/ the old cave-dwellers OF Europe were in
/ timately acquainted with the pre- historic
| horses using them for food ~ they did
almost every animal that fen beneath
! their flint arrows and stone axes And n
one may judge from the Abundance ~
bones. tho horses must have roamsd sboit
| In bands Just a. the horses escaped from
| civilization roam. OF have roamed over
| the pampas Of South America and The
| prairiea Of the West
The horse was Just ~ abundant In
/ North America In Pleistooene time 81 In
Europe. but there u no evidence 20 show
that It was contemporary with early man
| In North America. and even were this he
case. u r. generally believed that long
before the discovery Of America the horse
had disappeared.
Concentrated In Europe.
Long before the dawn OF history the
horse was domesticated In Europe. ard
Caesar found the Germans. and even the
/ old Britona. using war charlots drawn by
/ horses-for the first use man seems 70
/ have made Of the horses was 10 aid him
in killing on HE fellow man. and not
until comparatively modern times was the
| animal employed In the peaceful arts OF
/ agriculture. The immediate predecessors
/ Of these horses were considerably smaller.
being about tho size and built OF "a pony.
but they were very much like horse
/ IN structure. save that the teeth we're
/ shorter ~ they lived during Pllocene
times. they have been named "Pliohp-
/ pus"
Going hack into the PAST a step fur
/ Their. though pretty long step. II we
/ reckon by years. we come upon a num-
/ Der % animals very much like horses.
save for certain cranial peculiaritles. and
/ the fact that they had three toes on each
/ foot while the horse. a. everyone
Z
a. the skeleton OF a horse we will see
on either side Of the common bone. In
the same situation as the upper part %
/ the little toes Of the hippot herium. a.
these thrce-toed horses ere called. a lang
/ slender bone, termed By veterinarians he
I spnnt bone: and requires no ana omical
4 training 20 see THAI the bones IN the
1 two animals are the same. The horse
/ lacks the lower part OF his side toes,
that " all Just as man will very prob
ably some day lack the last bones Of his
little toe. We find an approach 20 this
/ condition IN some az the hippotheres
even, known IS Protohippus. IN which
/ the side toes are quite small, foreshadow-
/ ing the time when they shall have dis
| appeared entirely. Il may also be noted
I here that the spiint bones Of the horses
/ Of the bronze age ere a little longer than
/ those Of existing horses. and that they
are never unlted with the large central