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Readings on the Evolution of the Horse

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READINGS ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE The following are the technical publications which form the background of information used to compile both “evolution” articles posted here at the ESI Knowledge Base. This is by no means a complete bibliography of all the published research that has been done upon fossil horses, but nevertheless it is better than 30 pages long. The study of the evolution, biogeography, anatomy, embryology, classification, and functional morphology of horses is not only an old field but one that has fascinated many workers. It is best to regard this list as a sample which shows: Who the major workers have been, both in the past and recently Workers who have had long and productive careers (published over a long period of time) Areas of controversy (similar titles by multiple authors at nearly the same time) The names of the most important journals (where it would be productive to go for further reading) If you want to pursue the technical literature, you should print this bibliography out and take it to the library with you; you may find that this saves you a great deal of time. The ordinary public library probably will not have, or be able to locate, most of these listings; you will have to access either a University library or a library within a large Museum of Natural History, such as the American Museum in New York City, the British Museum in London, the National Museum of Canada in Toronto, the National Museum of Mexico in Mexico City, The University of California at Berkeley, The University of Florida at Gainesville, The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, The University of Kansas at Lawrence, The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, or the U.S. National Museum/Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Visiting a major museum is a good plan, anyway, if the subject of horses and their fossil and living relatives fascinates you. Online Internet listings will also be of assistance. Major sources: The Library of Congress: http://catalog.loc.gov/ The American Museum of Natural History library: http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/ The University of California Libraries: http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/search/ The British Museum (Natural History) Earth Science Library: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ library/earth-science-library/index.html The Geological Society of America publications index: http://www.geosociety.org/pubs/ See also the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) website: http://www.vertpaleo.org/publications/ palaeontologia.cfm Abusch-Siewert, S. 1983. Gebissmorphologische Untersuchungen an eurasiatischen Anchitherien (Equidae, Mammalia) unter besonder Berücksichtigung der Fundstelle Sandelzhausen, Courir Forschungsinstitute Skenenberg 62:1-361. Agassiz, L. and A. Gould. 1851. Principles of Zoology. Gould and Lincoln Publishers, Boston. Allen, J.A. 1878. The geographical distribution of mammals. U.S. Geological Survey 4:313-376. Anderson, E. 1984. Who’s who in the Pleistocene: a mammalian bestiary, in P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein, eds., Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 40-89. Arambourg, C. and J. Piveteau. 1929. Les vertébrés du Pontian de Salonique. Ann. Paléont. 18:59- 138. Archibald, J.D., P.D. Gingerich, E.H. Lindsay, W.A. Clemens, D.W. Krause, and K.D. Rose. 1987. First North American land mammal ages of the Cenozoic era, in M. O. Woodburne, ed., Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 24-76, Axelrod, D.I. 1937. A Pliocene flora from the Mount Eden beds, southern California. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication no. 476: 127-183. Ayala, F.J. 1988. Can “progress” be defined as a biological concept? in M.H. Nitecki, ed., Evolutionary Progress, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 75-96. Azzaroli, A. 1982. On Villafranchian Palaearctic Equus and their allies, Palaeontographica Italia, New Series 72:74-97. Azzaroli, A. 1988. On the equid genera Dinohippus Quinn 1955 and Pliohippus Marsh 1874. Boll. Soc. Paleont. Italiana 27:61-72. Azzaroli, A. 1990. The genus Equus in Europe, in E.H. Lindsay, V. Fahlbusch, and P. Mein, eds., European Neogene Mammal Chronology, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 339-356. Bader, R.S. 1956. A quantitative study of the Equidae of the Thomas Farm Miocene. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 115:47-78. Barbour, E.H. 1914. A new fossil horse, Hypohippus matthewi. Nebraska Geological Survey Bulletin, 4(10):169-173. Barry, J.C., E.H. Lindsay, and L.L. Jacobs. 1982. A biostratigraphic zonation of the middle and upper Siwaliks of the Potwar Plateau of northern Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 37:95-130. Bennett, D.K. 1980. Stripes do not a zebra make, Part I: A cladistic analysis of Equus. Systematic Zoology, 239(2):271-294. Bennett, D.K. 1984. Cenozoic rocks and faunas of north-central Kansas, with an appendix concerning taxonomy and evolution in the genus Equus. The University of Kansas Department of Systematics and Ecology, thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D., Lawrence, Kansas. Bennett, D.K. 1988. The ring of muscles. Equus Magazine, 121:36-42. Bennett, D.K., and R.S. Hoffmann. 1999. Equus caballus, Mammalian Species of the American Society of Mammalogists, no. 628 pp. 1-14. Benton, M.J. 1990. Vertebrate Paleontology. Unwin-Hyman, London. Berger, J. 1983. Ecology and catastrophic mortaligy in wild horses: implications for interpreting fossil assemblages. Science 220:1403-1404. Berger, J. 1987. Reproductive fates of dispersers in a harem-dwelling ungulate: the wild horse, in B.D. Chepko-Sade and Z.T. Halpin, eds., Mammalian Dispersal Patterns: The Effects of Social Structure on Population Genetics, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 41-54. Berggren, W.A., and J.A. VanCouvering. 1974. The late Neogene: biostratigraphy, geochronology and paleoclimatology of the last 15 million years in marine and continental sequences. Palaeogeograpy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 16:1-216, Berggren, W.A., D.V. Kent, J.J. Flynn, and J.A. VanCouvering. 1985. Cenozoic geochronology, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 96:1407-1418. Berggren, W.A., D.V. Kent, C.C. Swisher III, and M.-P. Aubry. 1995. A revised Cenozoic geochronology and chronostratigraphy, in W.A. Berggren, D.V. Kent, M.-P. Aubry and J. Hardenbol, eds., Geochronology, Time Scales and Global Stratigraphic Correlation: A Unified Temporal Framework for an Historical Geology. Society for Economic Paleontology and Mineralogy Special Publication, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 54:129-212. Bernor, R.L. 1985. Systematics and evolutionary relationships of the hipparionine horses from Maragheh, Iran (late Miocene, Turolian Age). Palaeovertebrata 15(4): 173-269. Bernor, R.L. and S.T. Hussain. 1985. An assessment of the systematic, phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships of Siwalik hipparionine horses. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 5(1):32- 87. Bernor, R.L. and H. Tobien. 1989. Two small species of Cremohipparion (Equidae, Mammalia) from Samos, Greece. Mitt. Bayer. Staatsslg. Paläont. Hist. Geolo. 29:207-226. Bernor, R.L., H. Tobien, and M.O. Woodburne. 1990. Patterns of Old World hipparionine evolutionary diversification and biogeographic extension, in E. Lindsay, V. Fahlbusch, and P. Mein, eds., European Neogene Mammal Chronology. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 263-320. Bock, W.J. 1973. Philosophical foundations of classical evolutionary classification. Systematic Zoology, 22:375-392. Boné, E.L., and R. Singer. 1965. Hipparion from Langebaanweb, Cape Province and a revision of the genus in Africa. Ann. South African Museum. 48:273-397. Bowler, P.J. 1976. Fossils and Progress: Paleontology and the Idea of Progressive Evolution in the Nineteenth Century. Science History Publications, New York. Bowler, P.J. 1989. Holding your head up high: degeneration and orthogenesis in theories of human evolution, in J.R.Moore, ed., History, Humanity, and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 329-353. Bown, T.M. and A.J. Kihm. 1981. Xenicohippus, an unusual new hyracothere (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from lower Eocene rocks of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Journal of Paleontology 55:257-270. Brooks, C.E.P. 1928. Climate Through the Ages: A Study of the Climatic Factors and their Variation. Yale University Press, New Haven. Burmeister, H. 1875. Los Caballos Fósiles de la Pampa Argentina. La Tribuna, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Butler, P.M. 1952a. Molarisation of premolars in Perissodactyla. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 121:819-843. Butler, P.M. 1952b. The milk-molars of Perissodactyla, with remarks on molar occlusion. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 121:777-817, Cain, A.J. 1954. Animal Species and Their Evolution. Hutchinson’s University Library, London. Camp, C.L., and N. Smith. 1942. Phylogeny and functions of the digital ligaments of the horse. University of California Memoirs, 13:69-124. Carroll, R.L. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. Freeman Brothers, New York. Chaney, R.W. and M.K. Elias. 1936. Late Tertiary floras from the High Plains. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication no. 476:1-72. Chow, M., and T. Qi. 1978. Paleocene mammalian faunas from Nomogen Formation of Inner Mongolia, Vertebrata Palasiatica, 16:77-85. Chubb, S.H. 1934. Frontal protuberances in horse: an explanation of the so-called “horned” horse. American Museum Novitates, 740:1-9. Churcher, C.S. and M.L. Richardson. 1978. Equidae, in V.J. Maglio and H.B.S. Cooke, eds., Evolution of African Mammals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 379-442. Cifelli, R.L. 1981. Patterns of evolution among the Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla (Mammalia). Evolution 35:433-440. Colbert, E.H. 1935. Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. II. The correlation of the siwaliks of India as inferred by the migrations of Hipparion and Equus. American Museum Novitates 797:1-15. Colbert, E.H. 1980. Evolution of the Vertebrates: A History of the Backboned Animals Through Time.
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    The Evolution of a Single Toe in Horses: Causes, Consequences, and the Way Forward

    1 The evolution of a single toe in horses: causes, consequences, and the way forward 2 Brianna K. McHorse,1,*,†,‡ Andrew A. Biewener,*,† and Stephanie E. Pierce*,‡ 3 4 *Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; 5 †Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Bedford, MA 01730, USA; ‡Museum of Comparative Zoology, 6 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 7 8 1 [email protected] 9 10 Abstract 11 Horses are a classic example of macroevolution in three major traits—large body size, tall- 12 crowned teeth (hypsodonty), and a single toe (monodactyly)—but how and why monodactyly evolved is 13 still poorly understood. Existing hypotheses usually connect digit reduction in horses to the spread and 14 eventual dominance of open-habitat grasslands, which took over from forests during the Cenozoic; digit 15 reduction has been argued to be an adaptation for speed, locomotor economy, stability, and/or 16 increased body size. In this review, we assess the evidence for these (not necessarily mutually exclusive) 17 hypotheses from a variety of related fields, including paleoecology, phylogenetic comparative methods, 18 and biomechanics. Convergent evolution of digit reduction, including in litopterns and artiodactyls, is 19 also considered. We find it unlikely that a single evolutionary driver was responsible for the evolution of 20 monodactyly, because changes in body size, foot posture, habitat, and substrate are frequently found to 21 influence one another (and to connect to broader potential drivers, such as changing climate). We 22 conclude with suggestions for future research to help untangle the complex dynamics of this remarkable 23 morphological change in extinct horses.
  • Order PERISSODACTYLA – Equids, Rhinoceroses, Tapirs

    Order PERISSODACTYLA – Equids, Rhinoceroses, Tapirs

    Order PERISSODACTYLA Order PERISSODACTYLA – Equids, Rhinoceroses, Tapirs Perissodactyla Owen, 1848. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 4: 103–141. Upper toothrows in altungulate Radinskya (late Paleocene) and Hyracotherium (Eocene). Tentative phylogenetic tree of Perissodactyla after Beninda-Emonds, 2007. Equidae (1 genus, 4 species) Asses, Zebras p. xx Rhinocerotidae (2 genera, 2 Rhinoceroses p. xx for true horses. North America became the centre of evolution of species) true horses, which occasionally migrated to other continents. The The perissodactyls are the order of herbivorous ‘odd-toed’ hoofed descendants of Protorohippus (once called Hyracotherium; Froehlich mammals that includes the living horses, zebras, asses, tapirs, 2002) evolved into many different lineages living side by side. The rhinoceroses and their extinct relatives. They were originally named collie-sized three-toed horses Mesohippus and Miohippus (from beds by Richard Owen (1848) as a group including horses, rhinos, tapirs dated about 30–37 mya) were once believed to be sequential segments and hyraxes, although no recent authors have accepted the inclusion on the unbranched trunk of the horse evolutionary tree. However, of hyraxes in Perissodactyla. Perissodactyls are recognized by a number they coexisted for millions of years, with five different species of two of unique specializations (Hooker 2005), but their single most diagnostic genera living at the same time and place. From Miohippus-like ancestors, feature is the structure of their feet. Most perissodactyls have either horses diversified into many different ecological niches. One major one or three toes on each foot, and the axis of symmetry of the foot lineage, the anchitherines, retained low-crowned teeth, presumably runs through the middle digit.