Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T20:39:06.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A reappraisal of the systematics, biogeography, and evolution of fossil horses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

M. O. Woodburne  and
Bruce J. MacFadden
M. O. Woodburne
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521
Bruce J. MacFadden
Affiliation:
Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The founders of North American vertebrate paleontology, F. V. Hayden, Joseph Leidy, E. D. Cope, O. C. Marsh, and their colleagues, collected and described the first suites of fossil mammals obtained from the rich Tertiary successions of the western United States. Among them were remains of fossil horses, and subsequent study of these resulted in an interpretation that supported the concept of Darwinian gradualism as the major mode of evolution. The fossil record of horses also contributed importantly to the demise of orthogenesis as an evolutionary pattern, and to the evaluation of evolutionary rates and long-term evolutionary trends in a major phyletic group of organisms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Fall 1982 , pp. 315 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Alberdi, M. T. 1974. El genero Hipparion en Espana. Nuevas formas de Castilla y Andalucia, revision e historia evolutiva. Trab. sobre Neogene-Cuaternario, Sec. Paleontol. Vertebr. Hum. Inst. “Lucas Mallada.” Pp. 1–146.Google Scholar
Beer, G. R. de. 1954. Archaeopteryx and evolution. The Advancement of Science, 42:1–11.Google Scholar
Bader, R. S. 1956. A quantitative study of the Equidae of the Thomas Farm Miocene. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard. 115:47–78.Google Scholar
Bennett, D. K. 1980. Stripes do not a zebra make. Part 1. Cladistic analysis of Equus. Syst. Zool. 29:272–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berggren, W. A. and Van Couvering, J. 1974. The late Neogene: Biostratigraphy, geochronology and paleoclimatology of the last 14 million years in marine and continental sequences. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimat. Palaeoecol. 16(½):1–216.Google Scholar
Bernor, R. L., et al. 1980. A contribution to the chronology of some Old World Miocene faunas based on hipparionine horses. Geobios. 13(5):25–59.Google Scholar
Bookstein, F. L., Gingerich, P. D., and Kluge, A. G. 1978. Hierarchical linear modeling of the tempo and mode of evolution. Paleobiology 4:120–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camp, C. L. and Smith, N. 1942. Phylogeny and functions of the digital ligaments of the horse. Mem. Univ. Calif. 13:69–124.Google Scholar
Colbert, E. H. 1935. Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. II. The correlation of the Siwaliks of India as inferred by the migrations of Hipparion and Equus. Am. Mus. Novitates, 797:1–15.Google Scholar
Deevey, E. S. 1947. Life tables for natural populations of animals. Qu. Rev. Biol. 22:283–314.Google Scholar
Downs, Theodore. 1956. The Mascall fauna from the Miocene of Oregon. Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 31:159–354.Google Scholar
Downs, Theodore. 1961. A study of variation and evolution in Miocene Merychippus. Los Angeles Co. Mus. Contrib. Sci. 45:1–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edinger, T. 1948. Evolution of the horse brain. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem. 25:1–174.Google Scholar
Eisenmann, V. 1980. Les Chevaux (Equus sensu lato) fossiles et actuels: cranes et dents jugales superieures. Cahiers de Paleontol., CNRS, Paris. Pp. 1–186.Google Scholar
Eisenmann, V. 1981. Les caracteres evolutifs des cranes d'Hipparion s.l. (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) et leur interpretation. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, 293, Ser. II:735–737.Google Scholar
Forsten, A. M. 1968. Revision of the Palearctic Hipparion. Acta Zool. Fennica. 119:1–134.Google Scholar
Forsten, A. M. 1980. How many Hipparion species at Samos? N. Jahrb. Geol. Paläontol. Monatsh. 7:391–396.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1981. Variation, sexual dimorphism, and social structure in the early Eocene horse Hyracotherium (Mammalia, Perissodactyla). Paleobiology. 7:443–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, W. K. 1920. On the anatomy of the preorbital fossae of Equidae and other ungulates. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 62:265–284.Google Scholar
Gromova, Vera. 1955. Le genre Hipparion. Inst. Pal. Acad. Sci., USSR 36 (in Russian, 1952). French translation by St. Aubin, Bur. Rec. Min. Geol. Ann. C.E.C.P. 12:1–473.Google Scholar
Haldane, J. B. S. 1949. Suggestions as to quantitative measurement of rates of evolution. Evolution 3:51–56.Google Scholar
Hooker, J. J. 1980. The succession of Hyracotherium (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) in the English early Eocene. Bull. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. (Geol.). 33:101–114.Google Scholar
Hulbert, R. C. Jr. 1982. Population dynamics of the three-toed horse Neohipparion from the late Miocene of Florida. Paleobiology 8:159–167.Google Scholar
Hussain, S. T. 1975. Evolutionary and functional anatomy of the pelvic limb in fossil and Recent Equidae (Perissodactyla, Mammalia.). Anat., Histol., Embryol. 4:179–222.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H., 1870. Anniversary address of the president of the Geological Society, London. Qu. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 26:49–51.Google Scholar
Kowalevsky, V. O., 1873. Sur l'Anchitherium aurelianense Cuv. et sur l'histoire paleontologique des chevaux. Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, (7) XX(5):1–73.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B. 1953. On the variation and population dynamics of fossil and Recent mammal populations. Acta Zool. Fennica, 76:1–222.Google Scholar
Lewin, R. 1980. Evolutionary theory under fire. Science. 210:783–887.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindsay, E. H., et al. 1980. Pliocene dispersal of the horse Equus and late Cenozoic mammalian dispersal events. Nature. 287:135–139.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1882. Indian Tertiary and post-Tertiary Vertebrata. Mem. Geol. Surv. India X(II):67–87, 96–98.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. 1980. The Miocene horse Hipparion from North America and from the type locality in southern France. Palaeontology 23:637–635.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Bakr, Abu. 1980. The horse, Cormohipparion theobaldi, from the Neogene of Pakistan, with comments on Siwalik hipparions. Paleontology 22:439–447.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Skinner, M. F. 1977. Earliest known Hipparion from Holarctica. Nature. 265:532–533.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Skinner, M. F. 1979. Diversification and biogeography of the one-toed horses Onohippidium and Hippidion. Postilla. 175:1–10.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Skinner, M. F. 1981. Earliest Holarctic hipparion, Cormohipparion goorisi n. sp., (Mammalia, Equidae) from the Barstovian (medial Miocene) Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. J. Plaeontol. 55:619–627.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J., and Skinner, M. F. 1982. Hipparion horses and modern phylogenetic interpretation: Comments on Forsten's view of Cormohipparion. J. Paleontol. 56:1336–1342.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Waldrop, J. J. 1980. Nannippus phlegon (Mammalia, Equidae) from the Pliocene (Blancan) of Florida. Florida State Mus. Bull. 25:1–37.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Woodburne, M. O. 1982. Systematics of the Neogene Siwalik Hipparions (Mammalia, Equidae) based on cranial and dental morphology. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 2:185–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmgren, B. A. and Kennett, J. P. 1981. Phyletic gradualism in a late Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal lineage; DSDP Site 284, southwest Pacific. Paleobiology 7:230–240.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1918. Equidae of the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of North America. Iconographic type revision. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. N.S. Mem. 2:1–326.Google Scholar
Ozawa, T. 1975. Evolution of Lepidolina muiltiseptata (Permian Foraminifera) in East Africa. Mem. Fac. Sci., Kyushu Univ. 23:117–164.Google Scholar
Pirlot, P. R. 1956. Les formes Européenes du genre Hipparion. Mem. Comun. Inst. Geol. Barcelona. 14:1–122.Google Scholar
Quinn, J. H. 1955. Miocene Equidae of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Bur. Econ. Geol., Univ. Texas, Publ. 5516:1–102.Google Scholar
Radinsky, L. B. 1976. Oldest horse brains: more advanced than previously realized. Science. 194:626–627.Google Scholar
Sadler, P. M. 1981. Sediment accumulation rates and the completeness of stratigraphic sections. J. Geol. 89:569–584.Google Scholar
Schindel, D. E. 1980. Microstratigraphic sampling and the limits of paleontological resolution. Paleobiology 4:408–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, S., Sondaar, P. Y., and Staesche, U. 1978. The biostratigraphical application of the genus Hipparion with special references to the Turkish representataivs. Konl. Ned. Akad. Wetten. Proc. B. 81:370–385.Google Scholar
Shotwell, J. A. 1961. Late Tertiary biogeography of horses in the northern Great Basin. J. Paleontol. 35:203–217.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1951. Horses. 247 pp. Columbia Univ. Press; New York.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1953. The Major Features of Evolution. 434 pp. Columbia Univ. Press; New York.Google Scholar
Skinner, M. F. and MacFadden, B. J. 1977. Cormohipparion n. gen. (Mammalia, Equidae) from the North American Miocene (Barstovian-Clarendonian). J. Paleontol. 51:912–926.Google Scholar
Skinner, M. F. and Taylor, B. J. 1967. A revision of the geology and paleontology of the Bijou Hills, South Dakota. Am. Mus. Novitates. 2300:1–53.Google Scholar
Sondaar, P. Y. 1969. The osteology of the manus of fossil and Recent Equidae, with special reference to phylogeny and function. Konink. Neder. Akad. Wetensch., Naturk. Verhand. XXV:1–76.Google Scholar
Stirton, R. A. 1940. Phylogeny of North American Equidae. Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 25:165–198.Google Scholar
Stirton, R. A. 1947. Observations on evolutionary rates in hypsodonty. Evolution 1:32–41.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1963. Selection in natural populations: Merychippus primus, a fossil horse. Nature. 197:1181–1183.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1964. Age in two fossil horse populations. Acta Zool. Fennica. XLV:93–106.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1965. Selection in natural populations. III. Measurement and Estimation. Evolution. 19:514–528.Google Scholar
Voorhies, M. R. 1969. Taphonomy and population dynamics of an early Pliocene vertebrate fauna, Knox County, Nebraska. Univ. Wyo. Contrib. Geol. Sp. Pap. 1:1–69.Google Scholar
Webb, S. D. 1977. A history of Savanna vertebrates in the New World. Part I. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 8:355–380.Google Scholar
Webb, S. D. 1969. The Burge and Minnechaduza mammalian faunas, north Central Nebraska. Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 78:1–191.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O. and Bernor, R. L. 1980. On superspecific groups of some Old World hipparionine horses. J. Paleontol. 54:1319–1348.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O., et al. 1981. The North American “Hipparion” Datum and Implications for the Neogene of the Old World. Geobios. 14:493–524.Google Scholar
Zhegallo, V. I. 1978. The hipparions of central Asia. The joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleont. Exped. Trans. 7:1–151.Google Scholar