Читать книгу Horse Genetics - Ernest Bailey - Страница 25

• The evolution leading to the horse occurred almost entirely in North America, beginning 55 million years ago.

• Following the evolution of the genus Equus in North America the species migrated across the Bering Strait and populated Asia, Africa, and Europe.

• Equus went extinct in North America approximately 12,000 years ago but continued to thrive in Asia, Africa, and Europe

• Domestication of the horse first occurred in Eurasia. However, aDNA testing proved that those horses were not the ancestors of modern domestic horses, rather, they were ancestors of a different horse species, the modern Przewalski horse.

• The precise region, or regions, responsible for domestication of the modern horse is/are still unknown.

• However, once horses were domesticated, it appears that early horse breeders practiced selection for color and other characteristics found in modern horse populations.