Fossils: A Story of the Rocks and Their Record of Prehistoric LifeMarkman, Harvey C.
Science
Fossils: A Story of the Rocks and Their Record of Prehistoric Life
Markman, Harvey C.
Fossils; Paleontology
Camels and closely related forms were quite abundant in North America
from early Oligocene to comparatively recent time. Numerous types were
developed during the course of their history, some small and delicately
formed, others tall and clumsy and much like the giraffe in structure.
Parts of many of these creatures have been found but the only completely
prepared skeletons in our collection are of the little gazelle-camel,
_Stenomylus_, from Lower Miocene deposits in northwestern Nebraska.
Pleistocene bisons are represented by several complete skeletons and
numerous skulls and horncores, some of the species showing an extreme
development in the length of horns. With two of the bison skeletons are
shown prehistoric weapon points, found with the bones and indicating
that these animals were hunted by primitive men at some time near the
close of the Ice Age. The artifacts first discovered near Folsom, New
Mexico, by field workers of our Museum, have become known to
archeologists as Folsom points.
PREHISTORIC HORSES
The past history of horses is well known from an abundance of fossil
material, ranging in age from the Eocene down to the present. Modern
horses have only one toe in each foot, but there are remnants of two
additional toes which may be seen only in the bony structure underlying
the skin. Most of their ancestral relatives were three-toed as far back
as the Oligocene period. During Eocene time, however, there was a stage
which may be regarded as four-toed although it was evidently a temporary
condition, linking known horses with more remote forms having five toes.
[Illustration: Oligocene Mammals From Weld County, Colorado
The giant pigs (_Archaeotherium mortoni_) at the left of the group,
and the rhinoceros (_Trigonias osborni_) were common animals of the
western plains region at one time.]
_Eohippus_, the “dawn horse” as it has been called, is one of the oldest
and best known of the American horses. Its relation to existing members
of the family can be traced by means of changes in tooth structure as
well as in the gradual reduction in the number of toes that is seen
among intermediate forms. Its ancestors some day may be positively
identified in that group of generalized, primitive, five-toed, hoofed
mammals which are known to have lived at the beginning of the mammalian
era, but such identification has not yet been established. Even
_Eohippus_ bore little resemblance to the familiar horse of today. Its
height was only eleven inches, and in body form it had much of the
appearance of a modern dog. There were four toes on the front foot, one
of them decidedly shorter than the others but complete in all its parts,
and evidently capable of service in carrying a portion of the animal’s
weight. The hind foot had three complete toes and a tiny remnant of a
fourth which could not have been apparent externally.
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