Light and shadows in the evolution of South European stenonoid horses

Palombo, María Rita; Alberdi, Marı́a Teresa

doi:10.2478/if-2017-0006

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…Inclusion of additional Plio-Pleistocene taxa could potentially make application of this taxonomic criterion more difficult, if it were to "even out" the phylogenetic gaps between clades. Nevertheless, the six currently recognized synapomorphies of clade 6 (Table A2), many of which are also relevant to the adaptive zone criterion, strongly suggest to us that Equus should encompass this clade, pending further phylogenetic analyses that include more Plio-Pleistocene equids traditionally assigned to Equus (e.g., E. cumminsi; E. enormis; E. huanghoensis; E. koobiforensis; E. livenzovensis; E. qingyangensis; E. sanmeniensis; E. yunnanensis; Azzaroli, 1992;Azzaroli and Voorhies, 1993;Downs and Miller, 1994;Eisenmann and Deng, 2005;Palombo and Alberdi, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study sample included holotype and referred specimens ( Table A1). We gathered data CH1 CH2 CH3 CH4 CH5 CH6 CH7 CH8 CH9 CH10 CH11 CH12 CH13 CH14 CH15 CH16 CH17 CH18 CH19 CH20 CH21 CH22 CH23 CH24 CH25 CH26 CH27 CH28 CH29 CH30 CH31 CH32 from the literature for E. idahoensis (Scott, 2005) and E. stenonis (Athanassiou, 2001;Palombo and Alberdi, 2017); all other specimens in our study were directly examined by us (Table A1). We analyzed the holotype and referred specimens of E. conversidens separately from the holotype of Ha.…”

Section: Phylogenetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Is Equus? Reconciling Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Analyses

et al. 2019

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Interest in the origin and evolution of Equus dates back to over a century, but there is still no consensus on the definition of the genus or its phylogenetic position. We review the placement of Equus within several phylogenetic frameworks and present a phylogenetic analysis of derived Equini, including taxa referred to Equus, Haringtonhippus, Dinohippus, Astrohippus, Hippidion, and Boreohippidion. A new, morphology-based phylogenetic tree was used as an initial hypothesis for discussing what taxa Equus encompasses, using four criteria previously used to define the genus category in mammals: phylogenetic gaps, uniqueness of adaptive zone, crown group definition, and divergence time. According to the phylogenetic gaps criterion, Equus encompasses clade 6 (Ha. francisci = E. francisci, E. conversidens, E. quagga, E. hemionus, E. mexicanus, E. ferus, E. occidentalis, and E. neogeus) based on morphological synapomorphies. Equus is assigned to clade 6, or possibly clade 7, according to the uniqueness of adaptive zone criterion. The crown group criterion places Equus at clade 6. Based on the time-calibrated phylogeny of Equini, the divergence time criterion suggests that Equus encompasses clade 9. This clade comprises all taxa traditionally assigned to Equus analyzed in our study, including the eight taxa listed above as well as E. stenonis, E. idahoensis, and E. simplicidens; the latter two are sometimes referred to the subgenus Plesippus and the former to the subgenus Allohippus. With the exception of the divergence time criterion, the results of our evaluation are congruent in identifying clade 6 as the most suitable position for Equus. The taxonomic implications of delimiting Equus to clade 6 in our phylogenetic tree include elevation of Allohippus and Plesippus to generic rank, assignment of a new genus to "Dinohippus" mexicanus, and synonymy of Haringtonhippus with Equus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Phylogenetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is Equus? Reconciling Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Analyses

et al. 2019

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“…Nevertheless, this hypothesis is not shared by some scholars, which prefer to identify the North American species into the genus Plesippus (Matthew, 1924;Gazin, 1936), and the Eurasian and African species into Allohippus (Kretzoi, 1938;Gromova, 1949); in their opinion, the genus Equus should be recognized as younger than 1 Ma (Eisenmann and Baylac, 2000;Eisenmann and Deng, 2005;Barrón-Ortiz et al, 2019). In this work, we consider the North American and Eurasian fossil species as being members of the genus Equus, following Skinner and Hibbard (1972), Azzaroli (1992Azzaroli ( , 2000Azzaroli ( , 2002, Azzaroli and Voorhies (1993), Alberdi et al (1998), Vilstrup et al (2013), Orlando et al (2013), Palombo and Alberdi (2017), Cantalapiedra et al (2017), Bernor et al (2018Bernor et al ( , 2019, Rook et al (2019), and Cirilli et al (2020a,b).…”

Section: Present Background Of the Genus Equus In The Old World Durinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This event is correlated with the initiation of a major glaciation pulse in the northern hemisphere and the first Equus occurrence in the Old World has been observed at 2.58 Ma in Europe and 2.55 in China (Rook et al, 2019;Cirilli et al, 2020a). Historically, most scholars agree that North American E. simplicidens can be identified as the oldest species of genus Equus (Skinner and Hibbard, 1972;Azzaroli, 1992Azzaroli, , 2000Azzaroli, , 2002Azzaroli and Voorhies, 1993;Alberdi et al, 1998;Palombo and Alberdi, 2017;Bernor et al, 2018Bernor et al, , 2019Rook et al, 2019;Cirilli et al, 2020a,b); this hypothesis has also been supported by some recent paleogenomic analyses (Orlando et al, 2013;Vilstrup et al, 2013). Nevertheless, this hypothesis is not shared by some scholars, which prefer to identify the North American species into the genus Plesippus (Matthew, 1924;Gazin, 1936), and the Eurasian and African species into Allohippus (Kretzoi, 1938;Gromova, 1949); in their opinion, the genus Equus should be recognized as younger than 1 Ma (Eisenmann and Baylac, 2000;Eisenmann and Deng, 2005;Barrón-Ortiz et al, 2019).…”

Section: Present Background Of the Genus Equus In The Old World Durinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing Equid Body Mass Estimate Equations on Modern Zebras—With Implications to Understanding the Relationship of Body Size, Diet, and Habitats of Equus in the Pleistocene of Europe

et al. 2021

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The monodactyl horses of the genus Equus originated in North America during the Pliocene, and from the beginning of the Pleistocene, they have been an essential part of the large ungulate communities of Europe, North America and Africa. Understanding how body size of Equus species evolved and varied in relation to changes in environments and diet thus forms an important part of understanding the dynamics of ungulate body size variation in relation to Pleistocene paleoenvironmental changes. Here we test previously published body mass estimation equations for the family Equidae by investigating how accurately different skeletal and dental measurements estimate the mean body mass (and body mass range) reported for extant Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi) and Burchell's zebra (Equus quagga). Based on these tests and information on how frequently skeletal elements occur in the fossil record, we construct a hierarchy of best practices for the selection of body mass estimation equations in Equus. As a case study, we explore body size variation in Pleistocene European Equus paleopopulations in relation to diet and vegetation structure in their paleoenvironments. We show a relationship between diet and body size in Equus: very large-sized species tend to have more browse-dominated diets than small and medium-sized species, and paleovegetation proxies indicate on average more open and grass-rich paleoenvironments for small-sized, grazing species of Equus. When more than one species of Equus co-occur sympatrically, the larger species tend to be less abundant and have more browse-dominated diets than the smaller species. We suggest that body size variation in Pleistocene Equus was driven by a combined effect of resource quality and availability, partitioning of habitats and resources between species, and the effect of environmental openness and group size on the body size of individuals.

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“…На Африканском континенте остатки данного вида не известны в отложениях древнее 2.2 млн лет: под туфом G формации Шунгура в Кении возрастом 2.23 млн лет (McDougall and Brown 2008) находят кости только трехпалых лошадей -гиппарионов (Eisenmann 1976(Eisenmann , 1985. Остатки в Европе не фиксируют в отложениях моложе 1.6 млн лет (Kotsakis et al 2008;Palombo and Alberdi 2017). Лошадь Стенона населяла открытые пространства саванного типа и была миграционно подвижна.…”

Section: )unclassified

Horses and ancient people: zooarchaeological investigation of Muhkai 2a

2018

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The paper presents zooarchaeological analysis of the remains of Stenon horse Equus (Allohippus) stenonis from the site Muhkai 2a (layer 2), Central Dagestan, Russia. They are of special interest because of their large number and can testify to one of the first visits of an ancient man in the North Caucasus – about 1.95 million years ago. As a result of the comparison of the composition and ratio of the Stenon horse bones, their taphonomic features, showed that the site is the result of natural death of the animals. It is assumed that the bulk of the bones were laid in the deposits of a once shallow, periodically drying out and strongly silted reservoir with weakly flowing or standing water. After complete drying of the reservoir, the paleontological material was sealed in a clay mass, which in turn was buried during further geological processes. Based on this, we suggest a possible scenario for the formation of the bone accumulation. Most likely, it was a watering place for various animals, where some of them perished for natural reasons, for example, they got bogged down, drowned, and someone of them became prey for predators. Later, there was a burial of whole corpses, or parts thereof, transported to the pond. Obviously, the bodies of recently dead animals could not help attracting an ancient man, being an easily accessible source of protein food. The presence of artifacts and cut marks on the femur of Stenon horse indicate the presence of an ancient man in Muhkai 2a (layer 2), but the human activity seems to have played a minimal role in the taphocenosis forming.

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Light and shadows in the evolution of South European stenonoid horses

Cited by 25 publications

References 85 publications

What Is Equus? Reconciling Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Analyses

What Is Equus? Reconciling Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Analyses

Testing Equid Body Mass Estimate Equations on Modern Zebras—With Implications to Understanding the Relationship of Body Size, Diet, and Habitats of Equus in the Pleistocene of Europe

Horses and ancient people: zooarchaeological investigation of Muhkai 2a

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