OCR Text |
Show Prehistoric Horses The earliest known member of the horse family is from rocks deposited in intermountain basins of western North America during the Eocene epoch, some 55,000,000 years ao. Hyracotherium, the rather imposing name given this earliest of horses, was tiny, little more than a foot in height. It bore four toes on its front feet and three on the hind. So different dif-ferent was it from its modern descendant, de-scendant, in fact, that were it not for the intergrading forms that are found in the successive rock layers, it is extremely doubtful if this primitive prim-itive animal would be recognized at all as a member of the horse family. |