As a type of extinct horse that was widely distributed on the earth in the Late Miocene (about 11.6 million to 5.33 million years ago), the migration and evolution of three-toed horses have been controversial.
Among them, the "three-toed horse event", that is, the related issues that the three-toed horse first appeared in the Eurasian continent, including when and how the three-toed horse first migrated from North America to the Eurasian continent, has long attracted the attention of the paleontological community.
The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province and Zheng Paleozoic Fossil Museum recently cooperated to conduct a comprehensive comparison of the new three-toed horse fossil materials from the Linxia Basin of Gansu Province and the previous classic materials. The study found that the Weihe three-toed horse and the Jia's three-toed horse should be merged into the same genus and species of the Weihe ancient three-toed horse; the three-toed horse originated in North America migrated to the Eurasian continent twice, and reached the Weihe River in China 11.5 million years ago. The ancient three-toed horse is the earliest three-toed horse in Eurasia.
This important achievement paper, which solves the mystery of the "three-toed horse event" and reveals the ecological background of the late Miocene, has recently been published online by the international academic journal "Scientific Reports".
On March 10, Sun Boyang, the first author of the paper and an associate researcher of the Institute of Paleo-Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency in Beijing to explain the latest research results of Weihe ancient three-toed horse fossils.
(Reporter Sun Zifa produced Zhou Jing)
Responsible editor: [Liu Pai]