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Reconstruction, left forefoot skeleton (third digit emphasized yellow) and longitudinal section of molars of selected prehistoric horses Skeletal evolution. The evolution of the horse, a mammal of the family Equidae, occurred over a geologic time scale of 50 million years, transforming the small, dog-sized, [1] forest-dwelling Eohippus into the ...
Horse teeth often wear in specific patterns, based on the way the horse eats its food, and these patterns are often used to conjecture on the age of the horse after it has developed a full mouth. As with aging through observing tooth eruption, this can be imprecise, and may be affected by diet, natural abnormalities, and vices such as cribbing .
Equus (/ ˈ ɛ k w ə s, ˈ iː k w ə s /) [3] is a genus of mammals in the family Equidae, which includes horses, asses, and zebras.Within the Equidae, Equus is the only recognized extant genus, comprising seven living species.
A sheared molar table is the extreme angulation of the chewing surface of the molars. It is caused by a lack of side-to-side chewing. It is a very severe problem because the horse cannot chew sideways. This results in the horse not being able to break down its food properly leading to malnutrition.
Two horses of the same age may have different wear patterns. A horse's incisors, premolars, and molars, once fully developed, continue to erupt as the grinding surface is worn down through chewing. A young adult horse will have teeth which are 4.5-5 inches long, with the majority of the crown remaining below the gumline in the dental socket.
Equidae (commonly known as the horse family) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, asses, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. The family evolved more than 50 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch, from a small, multi-toed ungulate into larger, single-toed animals.
Merychippus was the first equine to have the distinctive head shape of today's horses. The Miocene was a time of drastic change in environment, with woodlands transforming into grass plains. [ 7 ] This led to evolutionary changes in the hooves and teeth of equids .
Equus simplicidens, also known as the Hagerman horse and American zebra, is an extinct species of equine native to North America during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. [1] It is one of the oldest and most primitive members of the genus Equus .