Before the Common Era:
Horses in North America
Figure 3 from The Evolution of Equid Monodactyly: A Review Including a New Hypothesis (Janis and Bernor, 2019)Original drawing by CMJ, final figure rendered by James G. Napoli.
The genus Equus initially evolved in the Americas (light blue). The earliest equids were found in the Great Plains and Western regions of North America.
From the Great Plains, equids spread to South America and the Old World, before becoming extinct in the Americas approximately 10,000 years ago for currently unidentified reasons (Janis and Bernor, 2019).
The domestication of the modern equids occurred in Eastern Asia (Wade et al, 2009). Extant equids include horses and burros as well as wild asses and zebras. (Jonsson et al, 2014)
Figure 2 from The Evolution of Equid Monodactyly: A Review Including a New Hypothesis, (Janis and Bernor, 2019)
Original drawing by CMJ, final figure rendered by James G. Napoli.
Original drawing by CMJ, final figure rendered by James G. Napoli.
Figure 2 from Equine phylogeny, selection scan, and karyotypic and mutational changes. (Jonsson et al, 2014)