Early horses continuously moved back and forth between North America and Eurasia, extending to today’s Russian Far East nearby. China , during the late Pleistocene When sea levels fell and revealed a land bridge connecting the two continents, a recent study discovered this phenomenon.
Included among the examined fossils are the Dalianensis horses, which take their name from the northern Chinese city of Dalian, close to where these remains were discovered. These specimens exhibit a blend of genetic heritage derived from both Eurasian and North American groups.
The Dalianensis species lived about 17,000 years ago and were somewhat larger than modern wild horses.
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According to recent research, scientists discovered that horses made numerous crossings over the Bering land bridge from 50,000 to 13,000 years ago. During this period, there were reciprocal genetic exchanges occurring between North America and Eurasia.
Researchers in Britain , Canada, France, Russia And the United States released their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Friday.
The researchers noted that "Late Pleistocene horses from Alaska and northern Yukon have connections with populations from Eurasia and traversed the Bering land bridge several times throughout the last ice age."
We also discover distinct genetic lines existing both north and south of the American ice sheets, which had an impact on populations spanning Beringia and reaching as far as Eurasia.
Horses originated in the Americas approximately 4 million years ago. Roughly 20,000 years ago, following an ice age, temperatures began to rise. Last Glacial Maximum Submerging the Bering land bridge caused a decrease in horse numbers across North America.
They mostly vanished from the area around 10,000 years ago but kept evolving and were eventually tamed in Eurasia.
Spanish colonizers probably brought horses back to the Americas during the 1500s. These animals subsequently spread via trading networks and grew to be essential components of numerous Indigenous societies throughout the American Southwest and the Great Plains.
Ludovic Orlando, who leads the study and directs the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics in France, noted that although certain American-originated lineages moved and carried their genetic material deep into Eurasia, a lineage originating from Eurasia spread from the Ural Mountains towards western Alaska and throughout the Arctic region.
This area includes what is now northern Russia, Siberia, and Alaska.
"The migration that went in the opposite direction—from America into Eurasia—did reach China. We discovered subfossils in the Sukhkaya cave located in Russia’s Far East, close to both the Chinese city of Dalian and Jilin province, which show signs of having inherited part of their genetic makeup from an American lineage," he explained.
These remains date back more than 50,000 years and are associated with Equus dalianensis found near Dalian.
He mentioned that Dalianensis horses might appear like "a blend of groups coming from both Eurasia and America."
Orlando further explained, "This suggests that an initial Eurasian line first took root and developed within the area, later mingling with another line that had spread into the region from as far away as America."
When questioned regarding the reasons behind horses migrating extensive distances across continents in both directions, he referred to a Native American Lakota idea as an explanation for why living beings move.
When environmental conditions turned unfavorable for horses along with their microbial companions and food supplies, Orlando explained, "They would seek out other more suitable habitats where they could flourish once again, potentially joining forces with different groups that could strengthen them."
Migration is therefore one of the primary methods through which life can evolve," he stated. "Preserving populations unchanged and restricted to specific habitats might not suffice since they may struggle to flourish, interact, and form new partnerships to cope with rapidly changing surroundings.
The first author, Yvette Running Horse Collin—a postdoctoral researcher with the archaeology, genomics, evolution, and societies team at the lab in France—stated that horses "used to travel vast distances quite frequently up until fairly recently, before their natural migratory routes were disrupted."
“She explained that for the Lakota and numerous Indigenous Peoples, their understanding of the horse, both relationally and scientifically, shows that horses were created with mobility in mind. Horses do more than just adapt to changes; they are integral components of those transformations.”
Collin mentioned that conserving horses requires protecting other creatures that share their habitat and movements.
"It is because of this that one of the key findings from this research proposes establishing corridors which enable movement of life – collectively – whenever necessary," she explained.
One of our upcoming actions will involve applying these research outcomes to protect lives within our ancestral lands in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and also measure the effectiveness of these initiatives through scientific methods.
More from The South China Morning Post:
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