Fossils Of The Equidae Family

Equidae

The taxonomic family Equidae, “the horse family”, is composed of asses, horses, and zebras. The Equidae Family is a part of the Order Perissodactyla, made up of odd toed ungulate animals. The oldest Equidae fossils date back to 55 million years ago during the Eocene period in North America and are described as being dog-sized. About 10,000 years ago the Equidae family went extinct in the Americas , but were later reintroduced by the Spanish. Fossils of the Equidae family are very widespread and described as a very widespread group during the time period of the Pliocene (Kalmykov, 2015).

The Eocene period lasted approximately from 56 million years ago to 34 million years ago. These early “horses” did not have the same anatomical hoof structure that today’s Equids have, they had 3 toes on their front feet and 4 toes on their back feet. Over time, the side toes were lost and the middle toe came to be a single hoof. As the larger body mass was selected for, so was a single digit. As the Equidae family gradually got larger, the bone stress on the side toes posed a disadvantage leading to selection for a single metapodial that was less prone to bone stress (McHorse, et al. 2017). All of today’s horses, donkeys, and asses have a single hoof, but remains of vestigial toes can still be found on the bones above their hooves (McFadden, 2005). For

burchelli, E. grevyi, and E.zebra. They populate different parts of Africa. The E. burchelli can be distinguished from the other zebra species because its stripes grow wider towards the rear of their bodies. E. burchelli is also known as the plain’s zebra. They populate all across Africa. Studies of E. burchelli grazing habits show they have a mutualistic relationship with other grazing animals such as wildebeests. They travel together and prefer the same plant matter, but the wildebeest eats the leafy part of the plant while the zebra prefers the stalk portion (Janis