Question
Using various resources such as your school Library or the internet and discussions with your teacher, trace the evolutionary stages of any one animal say horse.
✓
Answer
The evolution of horse started with Eohippus during Eocene period.
It involved the following evolutionary stages:
It involved the following evolutionary stages:
- Gradual increase in body size.
- Elongation of head and neck region.
- Increase in the length of limbs and feet.
- Gradual reduction of lateral digits.
- Enlargement of third functional toe.
- Strengthening of the back.
- Development of brain and sensory organsn.
- Crease in the complexity of teeth for feeding on grass.
- Eohippus: It had a short head and neck. It had four functional toes and a splint of $1$ and $5$ on each hind limb and a splint of $1$ and $3$ in each forelimb. The molars were short crowned that were adapted for grinding the plant diet.
- Mesohippus: It was slightly taller than Eohippus. It had three toes in each foot.
- Merychippus: It had the size of approximately $100\ cm$. Although it still had three toes in each foot, but it could run on one toe. The side toe did not touch the ground. The molars were adapted for chewing the grass.
- Pliohippus: It resembled the modern horse and was around $108$ cm tall. It had a single functional toe with splint of $2^{nd}$ and $4^{th}$ in each limb.
- Equus: Pliohippus gave rise to Equus or the modern horse with one toe in each foot. They have incisors for cutting grass and molars for grinding food.
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