''Equus scotti'' (translated from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
as Scott's horse,
[ (2003) ''Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Vertebrates of Northern North America: With Radiocarbon Dates'', University of Toronto Press, 539 pages ] named after vertebrate paleontologist
William Berryman Scott
William Berryman Scott (February 12, 1858 – March 29, 1947) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, authority on mammals, and principal author of the White River Oligocene monographs. He was a professor of geology and paleontology at P ...
) is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of ''
Equus'', the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
that includes the
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
.
Evolution
![Escottioutcrop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Escottioutcrop.jpg)
''E. scotti'' was native to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
[The Paleobiology Database](_blank)
/ref> and likely evolved from earlier, more zebra-like North American equids early in the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
epoch.[ (1999) The ''Equus (Plesippus) - Equus scotti'' transition in western North America, ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 19(3): 74-A] The species may have crossed from North America to Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
over the Bering land bridge
Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of ...
during the Pleistocene. The species died out at the end of the last ice age in the large-scale Pleistocene extinction of megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
.
It was among the last of the native horse species in the Americas until the reintroduction of the horse approximately 10,000 years later, when conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
s brought modern horses to North and South America around the 16th century.
Distribution
Paleontological
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...
excavations have identified the locations of numerous places where ''E. scotti'' occurred. The species was named from Rock Creek, Texas
Rock Creek is an unincorporated community in Somervell County, Texas. It is located along Farm to Market Road 202 and is near the headwaters of Rock Creek, a tributary of the Brazos River.
History
Rock Creek was established in the 1850s and serv ...
, United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, where multiple skeletons were recovered. A closely related fossil find was made of ''Equus bautistensis'' in California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
; this species appeared closely related, but of a slightly more primitive form than ''E. scotti''.[ (1921) ''Extinct Vertebrate Faunas of the Badlands of Bautista Creek and San Timoteo Cañon, Southern California'', University of California Press, 424 pages] However, ''E. bautistensis'' was redefined as a junior synonym of ''E. scotti'' in 1998 by paleontologist E. Scott,[ (1998) ''Equus scotti'' from southern California, ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 18(3): 76-A] who also assigned fossils from the Anza-Borrego Desert
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (, '' AN-zə bə-RAY-goh'') is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and ...
in California, tentatively interpreted to represent ''E. bautistensis'', to ''E. scotti''.[ (2006) Extinct horses and their relatives, ''Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert: the Last Seven Million Years'', ed. G.T. Jefferson and L. Lindsey, Sunbelt Publications, p. 253 - 271] One of the reported locations farthest south in the Americas is Pali Aike National Park in Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
.[ (2008) ''Pali Aike'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnha]
/ref>
See also
*''Equus lambei
''Equus lambei'', commonly known as the Yukon horse or Yukon wild horse, is an extinct species of the genus '' Equus''. ''Equus lambei'' ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago. Based on recent examinations of the m ...
''
*Evolution of the horse
The evolution of the horse, a mammal of the family Equidae, occurred over a geologic time scale of 50 million years, transforming the small, dog-sized, forest-dwelling '' Eohippus'' into the modern horse. Paleozoologists have been able to piece ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Equus Scotti
Pliocene horses
Prehistoric mammals of North America
Pleistocene horses
Pliocene first appearances
Pleistocene species extinctions
Pleistocene mammals of North America
Fossil taxa described in 1900
Equus (genus)