The ancestors of horses ate grass millions of years ago? The latest research breaks through traditional cognition - Teller Report

2023-02-18T02:00:50.609Z

Researcher Deng Tao's team from the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) conducted a total of five species of horses in two geological historical periods of about 5.3 million years ago and 2.5 million to 2.2 million years ago in Linxia Basin, Gansu Province. The latest research on the feeding habits and ecological niche of the family has made new discoveries that break through the traditional cognition: First, about 5.3 million years ago, two kinds of three-toed horses that ate more leaves quickly became extinct under the trend of gradually drying and cooling climate , while another three-toed horse that only ate grass adapted and survived until about 1 million years ago before becoming extinct; From 10,000 to 2.2 million years, it continued to only eat grass, and its habitat was more open than that of its symbiotic true horse, while the true horse ate both leaves and grass, and then continued to evolve to become the only one in existence that only eats grass. grass horse. The research paper completed by Chinese scientists was recently published in the international professional academic journal "Paleogeography, Palaeoclimate, and Paleoecology". The picture shows the ecological restoration map of the Early Pleistocene true horse fauna in the Linxia Basin.