The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-30
ANCESTOR OF HORSE FOUND
 IN NEW YORK
WOrkmen Unearth Skull of Eos sil Animal Believed to be
 4,0O0 Years, of Age
New York, March 20.


 The skull of a Hipparion Gracile, 9 fossil horse somewhat smaller than tho Asiatic ass, which lived in the plio- cene period, 4,00O years ago, and which geolOglStS say was the ancestor Of tho modern horse, was unearthed yester- day morning at Park and Duane Sts by workmen excavating. for the new BrookFyn-New York subway loop. The bones were found at sea level twenty two feet down, and were buried in : stratum of solidifed black swamp mud The discovery is regarded as unusual since never before has the skeleton of an extinct member of the horse family been found so far north as this State
 Father l.. J. Eyers, pastor of St. An drew's Church, who formerly was all instructor in zoology and geology in Notre Dame University, in Indiana identified the bones fitted them togeth- CT and proved they belonged to the framework of a hipparion which roam ed Manhattan Island long before the day of man. That the bones are those of a modern horse or of any other animal that lives to-day, is out Of the question. A reporter visited the shed of the Bradley Contracting Company, where the bones were takei and examined them closely.
 When the skull had been fitted to- gether it was seen the animal had two
 
 mouth opening, made up of sharp in cisors, which the modern horse does not have, and the other set was far ther back in the mouth, consisting of more than twenty-two bic fiat mo- lars in each jaw. In the front set there are about nine teeth to each jaw, upper and lower. Between the two sets is an open space in the mouth about five inches long. The skull from lips to crown, measures twenty three inches, whereas the average length of the head of a modern horse is five inches longer.
 The teeth and bony framework of the skull were almost perfectly pre- served and the jaws fitted together to nicety. In every detail the skull fol- lowed the description of the hipparion. as mentioned in Le Conte's Studies in Geology which Father Evers show ed the reporter.
 those bones belonged to a happarion, said Father EverS. q wouldn't say that if I had not been, before I enter ed the priesthood, student and teacher of geology The discovery really is important, because the hip horses, never has been unearthed so far north before. Usually it's bones have been found in the upper mio- cene rocks of North America. in the southern part of the United States, and in the pliocene deposits of north ern Africa, Asia and Europe"
 "Was this hipparion similar to the modern horse, except for it's size and the double sets of teeth?" was asked. . No, it's neck was about a foot long CT, its hips sloped downward and it had three toes, instead of the hoof of the horse. Those toes grew togeth- CT with the successive ages, until at last they became the splfnt legs found in the lower part of horses legs to-day
 Father Evers also explained that the spot where the bones were found in. all probability was a pond 4,OOO years ago Manhattan was not an island, then, he said, for the North River was only a stream, and all Manhattan was made up of swamps and sea ponds. That would account, he added for the strange, solidified mud in which the bones were found.
 The workmen later in the day un- covered part of the skull of another animal much smaller, and it is expect ed to-day many other bones of that animal and the llipparion will be found