More light shines on Pleistocene extinction event with possible discovery of new genus of horse
February 14, 2018, CORDIS
A group of North American Pleistocene horses was previously identified as different species. Now, mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomic studies support the idea that there is only one species, which belongs to a new genus.
Meet Haringtonhippus, a possible new genus of horse covering the extinct New World stilt-legged (NWSL) equids, which, until now, have been thought of as multiple species. Prior to this study, these thin-limbed, lightly-built horses were believed to be related to the Asiatic wild ass or onager, or simply a separate species within the genus Equus, which includes all living horses, asses, and zebras. The fossil record shows how the ancestors of these animals evolved from dog-sized, three-toed browsers to larger, one-toed grazers over a period of about 55 million years. Along the way many species became extinct.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-pleistocene-extinction-event-discovery-genus.html#jCp
