ANS 3216 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Natural Disaster, Eohippus, Mesohippus
25 Aug 2015
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Document Summary
Fossil record: major changes throughout evolution can be seen anatomically through, leg structure, number of toes, skull and jawbone structure, teeth. Early horse evolution: eohippus or hyracortherium , 50 million years ago, also known as the dawn horse , very similar in size and structure to a small dog. Less than 2 feet tall (between 10 and 20 inches at the shoulder) Four toes on the front feet, and three toes on the back feet. About two feet tall at the shoulders (24 inches) Three toes on the front feet with an additional vestigial nubbin (similar to a dog"s dew claw), and three toes on the back feet. Migration patterns of early horses: the horse evolved in north america, eohippus and it"s successors evolved and stayed in north america until 10 million years ago when horses migrated across the land bridge connecting.
