A Timeline of Equine Evolution in North America

Did you know that horses first originated in North America, then migrated several times to areas like Asia, Europe and Africa, then disappeared from North America?  You can learn about the evolution of horses in this learning activity. The evolutionary pathway of the horse of today is actually quite complicated, but we have presented a simplified version to get you started.  Use your mouse to explore the “Equine Timeline”.  You can click on the drawings or symbols to learn more about the horses (not all of them are active) as they evolved throughout millions of years and how they changed from a tiny “horse-like” animal to the majestic animal that is the horse today.  You can see the timescale along the bottom and the name of the time period (mya=millions of years ago).

This learning activity is a brief introduction to the fascinating topic of horse evolution, but there are many more details that complete the picture.  This activity can get you started but to learn more, you can search for the University of Florida and their horse evolution display in your internet search program or read books on horse evolution.

Click Here to Start!