History of the Horse: Ancient DNA Reveals Lost Lineages

The history of the horse is not quite what we thought: Among the findings of an unprecedented analysis of ancient DNA, today's Icelandic ponies (above) are some of the last vestiges of a European lineage nearly wiped out by horses from Persia. (Credit: G. Tarlach) In the largest-ever ancient DNA study of its kind, researchers have pieced together the history of the horse: It's an epic saga sprawling across continents and 5,000 years of evolution and domestication, and yes, it has plot twists. Among the finds: researchers uncovered two lost lineages of the animal on opposite ends of Eurasia and determined that the modern horse is very different than even its recent ancestors, thanks in part to geopolitics. The scope of the study included 278 samples of genetic material from more than 40,000 years of the horse family tree. In addition to the two known living branches, the domestic horse ...