Science
Related: About this forumLong-Lost Horse Toes Found
A new study reveals modern horses retain vestiges of all five ancestral toes
By Brian Switek on March 21, 2018
Horses are on point. This is literally true. From asses to zebras, all living horses stand on a single toe - the equivalent of our third digits of our hands and feet.
The singular nature of horse legs has made equids evolutionary favorites. Their fossil record is so extensively known that for over a century they have been icons of transcendent change, a tangle of petrified skeletons stretching back over 50 million years documenting how tiny, forest-dwelling species like Eohippus scampered around on multiple toes until life on hard, grass-covered plains nudged horses towards their more familiar modern forms.
Modern horses carry some signs of these changes. Now and then a horse is born with vestigial side toes, demonstrating that the genetic and developmental framework for those additional digits still exists. And even in horses with the expected single hoof, the front legs still bear two tapered bones on the side of the primary column of the feet - split bones - that are remainders of ancient, additional toes.
This is textbook stuff, an easily-accessible demonstration of how every organism is a mix of the old and new. But weve apparently been missing other clues wrapped in equine flesh. Horses dont just have parts of three toes. They retain signs of the standard mammalian complement of five digits.
More:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/laelaps/long-lost-horse-toes-found/
Basic LA
(2,047 posts)Thanks for posting.
pansypoo53219
(20,995 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)Bayard
(22,149 posts)Learned that in my first horse book as a kid. The chestnuts, the little scaly pads they have on the insides of their legs are whats left of those toes.
SCantiGOP
(13,873 posts)I remember seeing them at Woodstock. They came on about the time the acid kicked in.