47 Million Year Old Pregnant Horse Fossil Found

I thought this was interesting enough to share:

When a thirsty pregnant horse drank from a freshwater lake 47 million years ago, she was unaware that poisonous volcanic gases might lead to her sudden demise. Now, the fossilized remains of the mare and her tiny, unborn foal are revealing new insights into reproduction in ancient horses, including surprising reproductive similarities with today's horses, according to a new study.

Researchers found the ancient horse (Eurohippus messelensis) in the Messel Pit fossil site in Germany, a location renowned for its well-preserved fossils that date back to the Eocene Epoch, between about 57 million and 36 million years ago, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The reproductive similarities between ancient and modern-day horses might seem surprising, given the differences in the animals' size and anatomy. The ancient mare was small — about the size of a modern fox terrier — and had four toes on her front feet and three on her rear feet.

Read full article here: www.livescience.com...

And here's the picture:


After reading this article, I got curious about how horses looked like in the past and found some very good websites.
Here's one:

Horse Evolution Over 55 Million Years:
chem.tufts.edu...
You can go to their website to see the horse's evolution.
Here is a sample :



After looking at all the skeletons I wondered how they might have looked like when they were alive, so I did a little more digging.

I tried to find an illustration as close as possible to the age of the horse in the article. I found these. I was just really curious how horses might have looked like millions of years ago.

Mesohippus This early horse relative lived in North America about 40 million to 30 million years ago. Mesohippus (or "middle horse") was about as tall as Hyracotherium but had developed a larger brain that more closely resembled that of a modern horse...

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Orohippus The Orohippus —or "mountain horse" genus also emerged during the Eocene about 50 million years ago. These lean-legged horse ancestors were about the same size as Hyracotherium .

Source: www.scientificamerican.com...

I thought it was an interesting read, and it fueled my curiosity to learn even more about them.
Have a great Sunday!

That's pretty wild! Literally and figuratively.

S&F for sharing it and putting some extra work in it as well. I enjoyed reading it very much.

You don't need a better case than this one for something to be wrong with carbon dating as a real and reliable method for dating anything…

This case makes the argument that neutrinos indeed do influence radioactive decay enough to seriously throw the data about dating (no matter what stud they are listening to….lol) off.
regards, rainbow
tetra

Great OP with bells on. Thanks. And to think that some of these horses somewhere were the ancestors of Secretariat. I'm glad his lineage wasn't cut off by accidents or toxic fumes.

a reply to: Rainbowresidue

Oh! Thanks for that! Damn, now I want an Orohippus!

a reply to: Rainbowresidue

Thank You for posting this fascinating article, and puttin' in some extra effort to add to it!

Great, Informative Thread, and interesting to boot!! Syx.

a reply to: SyxPak

Thank Syx.

I believe what was so special about finding this fossil in Germany was that the mare was pregnant, and the fetus can be seen inside.

(I have to admit something here. I'm having a hard time seeing the fetus fossil. I've been looking at it from all directions, I just can't find it.)

Dear Rainbow Residue:
I apologize to you, for when I first replied, I was just carried away with the aspect of it I spoke of in my first post. I should have spent more time and attention actually looking at what you posted, for you went to a great deal of effort to give a lot of detail about the evolution and history of the horse.

I thank you for that information and a great, informative thread as the poster before me just said, and is right to say.
Thanks for the thread.
regards to you,
tetra50

a reply to: tetra50

Thank you Tetra.
Nothing to apologize for.
I'm glad you liked the thread.

a reply to: Rainbowresidue

Great and interesting thread. Someone was questioning evolution on one of the threads yesterday and then up pops your thread which gives a good example of evolution and more information to hel;p us understand a little about the history of our planet and its life.

a reply to: Shiloh7

Thanks.
Oh, I didn't know about that other thread. Another case of synchronicity , I guess.

Wow....and sadly it breaks my heart as the horse died giving birth. How much pain she must have been in....

Horses are so beautiful I love them!

I can't believe the huge difference in appearance! And size as well too go from the size of a fox terrier to the size that modern day horses are now , wow!

Thanks for posting this! Very interesting and thought provoking!

Thanks for some interesting morning reading.
I couldn't help but have an image of what a Western film would look like in those days.
Little monkeys on tiny horses having a shoot'em up.

a reply to: Rainbowresidue

Great thread! I've always loved horses, we have 7 of them, but I've never looked much into their past. Not like I have with dogs and such anyway. I always figured they were muc larger than they are now. I was pleasantly surprised to see how small they were. I'd love to have a Mesohippus that could live in the house and play with my dog