Study Claims That Horses Used To Be Much Smaller Than They Are
Now, I'm not very educated when it comes to 'sciency' things that's why I rely on places on the internet to confirm that I made the right choice in my career choice. Sciencenew.com has an article saying the mammals used to be a lot smaller than they currently are today.
Thanks to the folks at the University of Florida & Nebraska and the teeth that they found in Wyoming they were able to find a direct correlation between the size of mammals and the increase and decrease in temperature.
As we all know things used to be quite a bit colder than they are now and they say that with an increase in temperature (around 10 degrees) mammals like horses shrank to the size of a house cat. Then when it warmed up a little bit, they grew to the size that they are currently.
Very interesting arcticle and piece of history from our friends at both the University of Nebraska & Florida.
[Illustration by Danielle Byerley, UFL/Florida Museum of Natural History.]