The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-09
HORSE CONTRADICTS DARWIN.
Law, NOT CHANCE, GOVERNED THE
ANIMALS DEVELOPMENT.

Prof. Osborn Finds In This Fact n Flaw In
the Theory OF Evolution as its Great
Exponent saw It, and Believes Darwin
Would To-day Retract His Opinions.
In his third lecture on the evolution
of the horse, at the Museum of Natural
/ History last light, Henry Fairfield Osborn.
Da Costa professor of zoology at Columbia,
/ introduced his audience to the very first
ancestor OF the modern horse an ancestor
no bigger than dog. He also destroyed
! pet popular theory that horses originated
/ in North America. No such thing. No
/ one knows where horses originated. Fo5-
| silized remains are found in eocene rocks
all over Europe as well. But equine gene
alogv can best be traced in the western part
of the United States. where even now
explorations are going on by virtue OF the
fund established by the late William c.
Whitney
The present course is to be known hence
forth az the Morris K. Jesup lectures on
the horse.
Ever since 1870 said Prof. Osborn
"innumerabe discoveries have been made
in the Rocky Mountain region. In the
small eroslons, Profs. Leidy. Cope and
Marsh did excellent work in the bridge,
beds and in the Green River section in
Wyoming and the Wasatch section of
Utah.
"The Phenacodus. the first real five toed
horse ancestor, Is the oldest type found.
In the Wind River section Of northern
Wyoming is found the Orohippus; or noun
tain horse. an early ancestor. Inc Cintah
section in Utah is the home OF the Epihippus
the last stage in evolution of the eocene
horse"
At this point picture Of a. fossil hunt
among the rocks was flashed upon the
screen, and Prof. Osborn mentioned some
of the difficulties Of the sport.
You keep looking on the ground for
bit Of bone or projecting tooth. II you
see one and follow it up you may find some
thing Only one complete skeleton has
ever been found The eocene types we're
not grass eaters They we're browsers,
and fed upon buds and flowers. 1t was
only toward the end Of the eocene period
and at the beginning of the ollgooene that
the horses teeth began TO elongate and he
began to eat grass His struggle for ex-
istenCe was constant.
THE first ancestor OF the horse included
forms like the tapir and the rhlnoceros,
heavy of foot, known as coryphodons
The screen showed a male and female
coryphodon. the male with his mouth
open to display tusks giving the effect
OF coryphodonous laughter,
This picture explained the lecturer,
Is caIlpQ inc I)ItDlHIOIlC JDhtt lIit lciIluIt
is telling the male joke and he is laugh
ing at It, some say.
The Untatherium. the next stage in
horse development shown. was large
animal looking like a cross between an
elephant and deer; lut the increase in
bodily size did not carry with il cerebral
increase, and this large creature had
brain only as large as a dogs.
Then, it was shown, came another light
footed sort of animal, many-toed still.
but with the lateral digts already raised
off the ground and in process of reducuT
At this period the horse was only abc&t
three end one-haf hands high.
In 1870 the series OF stages discovered
was complete enough to demonstrate
absolutely the theory of evolution. And
while the horse kept increasing in size, his
evolution was otherwise process of sub
traction and reduction rather than addi-
ton of parts and members. In time the
other toes all disappeared and the middle
finger. the finger OF destiny which did the
most work increased in size and became
the hoof of the present day
And here pursued the lecturer, we
come again TO the theory of evolution,
We always find a developing organ side
by side with a degenerating one This
is an operation OF Jaw, not chance, which /
Is contrary 10 Oar viii has ~ the most |
difficult problem of the evolutionist to-day
beleveif Darwin were alive to-day ne would
say. My theory Is not supported by facts
/ withdraw it until another and better
theory il found Mine was only work |
ing hypothesis.
By the aid Of photographs Prof Osborn
then pointed out that the grinding teeth OF
the horse have increased from three TO six
and the cone shaped cusps of the teeth have
underrone \ long and gradual evolution
of their own and increased from six to
eleven.
Next Monday the lecture will deal with
the Whitney fund explorations in the West