Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

The Prehistoric Horse Thread

Comments

  • #2
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    It's called a "Probodiscipparion", and its described as being "large to giant sized" and having a similar nose structure to a tapir. A trunked horse? :eek:
    It is also said to have lived besides water, like a tapir. A water horse?? :eek::eek:

    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-skull-hipparion-early-pleistocene-longdan.html

    skullofhippa.jpg

    1-skullofhippa.jpg


  • #3
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    What an amazing creature! Any idea what they mean by 'large to giant' in terms of size?
    Also, I'm surprised that it's in the Hipparion genus. I would have imagined it would have been an entirely new genus.


  • #4
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Galvasean wrote: »
    What an amazing creature! Any idea what they mean by 'large to giant' in terms of size?
    Also, I'm surprised that it's in the Hipparion genus. I would have imagined it would have been an entirely new genus.

    Me too...

    I don´t know what large to giant means in this case... I believe the largest prehistoric horses known are on the higher end of modern day horse size range.


  • #5
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Horses are a strange one. They've (as far as we know) never had a branch that evolved toward 'gigantism'. Practically every animal family does at some point.


  • #6
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Horses are a strange one. They've (as far as we know) never had a branch that evolved toward 'gigantism'. Practically every animal family does at some point.

    Eqqus giganteus and Eqqus capensis were quite big, actually... up to 2 m tall and about as heavy as some of the largest modern day horse breeds. Plus there's tons of equine fossils that haven´t been properly described/announced and may be as large or larger than these two.


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    These ancient horses apparently had trunks.

    The study separates three distinct genera of prehistoric, browsing horses that apparently developed tapir-like trunks independently from each other.

    https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/10202

    proboscidipparion_pater_by_sinammonite-danqihq.jpg


  • #8
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0877-remains-of-extinct-zebra-like-horse-found-at-denisova-cave-home-of-ancient-man/

    inside_ovodova_scheme.jpg


  • #9
    Kamili
    Registered Users Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Kamili


    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/science/horse-skeleton-utah.html?fbclid=IwAR2etS5s8NRTIZ0giraWoRkGOyL8q8w-_ztyIsv8-7VSzCv9lWV2kmlSmLU&mc_cid=78d9051a3a&mc_eid=09334ab492

    760x506_f24abe800cf16ec3f9f82ee54ed1cb78.png


  • #10
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Incredible!


  • #11
    Heraldoffreeent
    Registered Users Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭Heraldoffreeent


    He's a bit thin..........


  • Advertisement
  • #12
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,234 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Have there been (m)any pre-1492 finds of horses in the Americas?


  • #13
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Yes of course. Horses were abundant and diverse in the Americas until about 12.000-10.000 years ago, when they went extinct along with other megaherbivores (mammoths, camels, giant bison etc).


  • #14
    Kamili
    Registered Users Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Kamili


    I wonder if they will find the head.


  • #15
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,061 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    From what I read of the find it was uncovered during some garden landscaping of some nature and sadly apparently earlier work had taken the head and they found bits of skull and a few teeth in disturbed soil nearby.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • #16
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    That is sad. Countless fossils must have been lost that way without anyone even noticing. :(


  • #17
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Horse family tree simpler than previously believed, suggests DNA study.

    https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2019/09/20/ancient-dna-simpler-family-tree-horses/

    Samples-study.jpg?w=800&ssl=1

    hippidion.jpg?w=800&ssl=1


Advertisement