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Transitional Horse Series

Welcome to the Transition Horse Series page. These links are provided as additional information to go along with the topics covered on my website. At the time of this posting, the links are all in working order, but if you come across one that doesn't work, please contact me at WWDD.

Horse Evolution over the last 55 Million Years

The artwork depicting horse evolution is from Professor Donald Levin's course in BioEvolution at the University of Texas in Austin. This is a brief, highly illustrated course with many examples given of macroevolution. Notice that the generalized branching diagram in this illustration is less twiggy than the more bushy branching depicted at other resources mentioned here.

Evidence for Horse Evolution

Discusses the ups and downs of horse evolution. A chart shows the general trend in equid body size over millions of years. While such trends as toe reduction and increase in size are real over time, the rate of change varied among different branches of the equid evolutionary bush, and there were reversals along the way. The evolution of horses was not a steady ladder of progress.

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Fossil Horses

Fossil horses at the Florida Museum of Natural history has an excellent exhibit showing the evolution of horses and their leg/foot bones. Click on the fossil horse gallery, which shows the evolutionary branching in horses with brief, nicely illustrated pages for 15 major groups, linked to biostratigraphic levels.

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Horse Evolution

Horse Evolution is Kathleen Hunt's FAQ at www.talkorigins.org. Horse species did not always come into being by gradual transformation (anagenesis) of their ancestors; instead, sometimes new species split off from ancestors (cladogenesis) and then co-existed with those ancestors for some time. Described are about 30 genera of horses during 55 million years of evolution. Notice the extensive branching patterns.