CREATION BY EVOLUTION
distinctive features and performed certain definite, well-known functions.
The Horse
The work of tracing the development of the horse is relatively easy, especially the forms of the horse that lived in America, for we have a very extensive series of fossil remains of American horses, taken from beds that are piled in succession one upon another (Fig. 1). More than 200 different kinds of American horses have been discriminated, and in addition to these about 30 kinds have been found in Europe and nearly as many more in South America, Asia, and Africa. Some beds have yielded thousands of teeth and jaws, some have yielded other parts of the bony frame, and most of the types of horses are represented by complete skeletons.
Geological Table Showing Evolution of the Horse
Period | Epoch | Length of epoch in millions of years |
Millions of years ago |
Kinds of horses | |||
Quaternary | Recent | 1 | Equus | ||||
Pleistocene | |||||||
Tertiary | Pliocene | 8 | 9 | Plesihippus, Hipparion | |||
Pliohippus, Hippidium | |||||||
Protohippus | |||||||
Miocene | 13 | 22 | Merychippus | ||||
Parahippus | |||||||
Hypohippus | |||||||
Anchitherium | |||||||
Oligocene | 13 | 35 | Miohippus | ||||
Mesohippus | |||||||
Eocene | 20 | 55 | Epihippus | ||||
Orohippus | |||||||
Eohippus |
The genus that includes the modern horse (Equus) is represented today by the domestic horse (of which there are
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