ANS 3006C Lecture 24: Horses Part 1
14 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Prehistory is an educated guess of the age of the horse based mostly from dental remains. The word horse comes from the anglo-saxon word hors which (cid:373)ea(cid:374)s (cid:862)swift(cid:374)ess(cid:863) Horses are part of the family equidae: many species of this family are extinct, horses are of the genus equus. After 50 million years, horses became extinct everywhere except for africa and asia. The domestication of animals: dog 12,000 bc. How did the horse survive on the open plains: horses are considered to be large prey animals, optimized straight forward speed with stamina, they can run faster and further than their predators. Unique body design: horses are the only single toed animal in the world, their long limbs are used for leverage, loss of lateral flexion in the limbs. Legs do not bend side to side, only forward and backwards: muscles in the top of the leg are designed for maximum motion with minimum flexion.
