evolution of the horse Essay -- essays papers

growing of the buckFor many people, the horse family remains the classic example of evolution. As more and more horse fossils have been found, some ideas about horseevolution have changed, but the horse family remains a equitable example ofevolution. In fact, we now have enough fossils of enough species in enoughgenera to examine details of evolutionary change.Evolution does not draw in a bully line toward a goal, like a ladder rather,evolution is like a branching bush, with no determine goal. Horsespecies were constantly branching off the evolutionary tree and evolving on various unrelated routes. Theres no discernable straight line of horseevolution. Many horse species were usu all toldy present at the same time, withvarious numbers of toes, and adapted to various diets. In new(prenominal) words, horseevolution had no inherent direction. We only have the belief of straightline evolution because only one genus happens to still be alive, whichdeceives some people into t hinking that the one genus was somehow thetarget of all the evolution. Instead, that one genus is merely the last survivingbranch of a at a time mighty and sprawling bush.Tracing a line of descent from genus Hyracotherium to Equus reveals severalapparent trends reduction of toe number, increase in size of cheek teeth,lengthening of the face, and increase in body size. but these trends are notseen in all of the horse lines. On the whole, horses got larger, bu...