Humans have been domesticating animals for thousands of years. Domestication is the process of taking a wild species and making them live with humans. An animal is considered to be domesticated when some part of their life has been permanently changed by living with humans. Most scientists agree that the dog was the first domesticated animal and reached domestication around 17,000 years ago. The cat is considered domesticated also, however they have only been domesticated for about 3,500 years. The horse on the other hand has only been domesticated for 4,000-6,000 years. Scientists believe that while isolated examples of domestication may have occurred around the 6,000 year mark, widespread domestication did not occur until around 4,000 BC.

However, the horse of today has been much longer in the development. Horses have not always been the impressive creatures that they are today. The first recorded instance of an equine creature was Eophippus. This was a small horse that was just barely a foot tall - about 14 inches. He was a forest dwelling horse that had three toes on its hind feet and four toes on its front feet - instead of hooves. Eophippus lived around 60 million years ago! This horse is sometimes called the "Dawn Horse" since it was the beginning of the species. Fossilized remains of this horse are found in Wyoming, Utah and some places in Europe.

Moving forward in history by about 20 million years, the equine species evolved a bit to produce the equine called Mesophippus. Mesophippus looks much more horse-like than Eophippus. During this time the land was drying from swamp to forest and Mesophippus grew taller and the three toes started to form hooves at the base of the toes. Mesophippus' teeth were further evolved also and he could run much faster than Eophippus.

About 30 million years ago, the next equine species to evolve become extremely recognizable as the forerunner of today's horses. Not only did Miohippus have hooves, he had a bunch of loose hair at the end of a furred tail - the beginning of the free-flowing tails that we see today. Miohippus looks much like a mule with the slightly blocky head and muscular build.

About 20 million years ago, the world produced Merychippus. Merychippus had a mane and a basic tail. Merychippus evolved on North America and was the first Equine breed to develop specifically to live on the windswept plains. His teeth evolved to be very similar to what we see in the modern horse's mouth. He was about 35 inches tall or three feet. The same size as some ponies today. He still had some residual toes, but they no longer touched the ground and he had a true hoof.

About 12 million years ago, the next step of Equine history was born - Pliohippus. This new equine needed speed to survive and the hoof continued to form and harden. Pliohippus crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America where he flourished on both continents. He grew bigger and stronger. Prehistoric humans hunted him for his food and hide. However, he died out in North and South America. Equines would not be seen again on American soil until the Spaniards brought them to help conqueror the New World. Pliohippus had a stiff upright mane, had a longer head than modern horses and had wider set eyes. He was about the size of a donkey and was very strong.

In the next edition of the paper - learn how Pliohippus helped create the modern horse and how there are still breeds of prehistoric horses alive today!

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Comment article Name Title Comment Humans have been domesticating animals for thousands of years. Domestication is the process of taking a wild species and making them live with humans. An animal is considered to be domesticated when some part of their life has been permanently changed by living with humans. Most scientists agree that the dog was the first domesticated animal and reached domestication around 17,000 years ago. The cat is considered domesticated also, however they have only been domesticated for about 3,500 years. The horse on the other hand has only been domesticated for 4,000-6,000 years. Scientists believe that while isolated examples of domestication may have occurred around the 6,000 year mark, widespread domestication did not occur until around 4,000 BC. However, the horse of today has been much longer in the development. Horses have not always been the impressive creatures that they are today. The first recorded instance of an equine creature was Eophippus. This was a small horse that was just barely a foot tall - about 14 inches. He was a forest dwelling horse that had three toes on its hind feet and four toes on its front feet - instead of hooves. Eophippus lived around 60 million years ago! This horse is sometimes called the "Dawn Horse" since it was the beginning of the species. Fossilized remains of this horse are found in Wyoming, Utah and some places in Europe. Moving forward in history by about 20 million years, the equine species evolved a bit to produce the equine called Mesophippus. Mesophippus looks much more horse-like than Eophippus. During this time the land was drying from swamp to forest and Mesophippus grew taller and the three toes started to form hooves at the base of the toes. Mesophippus' teeth were further evolved also and he could run much faster than Eophippus. About 30 million years ago, the next equine species to evolve become extremely recognizable as the forerunner of today's horses. Not only did Miohippus have hooves, he had a bunch of loose hair at the end of a furred tail - the beginning of the free-flowing tails that we see today. Miohippus looks much like a mule with the slightly blocky head and muscular build. About 20 million years ago, the world produced Merychippus. Merychippus had a mane and a basic tail. Merychippus evolved on North America and was the first Equine breed to develop specifically to live on the windswept plains. His teeth evolved to be very similar to what we see in the modern horse's mouth. He was about 35 inches tall or three feet. The same size as some ponies today. He still had some residual toes, but they no longer touched the ground and he had a true hoof. About 12 million years ago, the next step of Equine history was born - Pliohippus. This new equine needed speed to survive and the hoof continued to form and harden. Pliohippus crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America where he flourished on both continents. He grew bigger and stronger. Prehistoric humans hunted him for his food and hide. However, he died out in North and South America. Equines would not be seen again on American soil until the Spaniards brought them to help conqueror the New World. Pliohippus had a stiff upright mane, had a longer head than modern horses and had wider set eyes. He was about the size of a donkey and was very strong. In the next edition of the paper - learn how Pliohippus helped create the modern horse and how there are still breeds of prehistoric horses alive today! Comment this article Make a suggestion Comment article Name Title Comment Make a suggestion Name Title Comment Humans have been domesticating animals for thousands of years. Domestication is the process of taking a wild species and making them live with humans. An animal is considered to be domesticated when some part of their life has been permanently changed by living with humans. Most scientists agree that the dog was the first domesticated animal and reached domestication around 17,000 years ago. The cat is considered domesticated also, however they have only been domesticated for about 3,500 years. The horse on the other hand has only been domesticated for 4,000-6,000 years. Scientists believe that while isolated examples of domestication may have occurred around the 6,000 year mark, widespread domestication did not occur until around 4,000 BC. However, the horse of today has been much longer in the development. Horses have not always been the impressive creatures that they are today. The first recorded instance of an equine creature was Eophippus. This was a small horse that was just barely a foot tall - about 14 inches. He was a forest dwelling horse that had three toes on its hind feet and four toes on its front feet - instead of hooves. Eophippus lived around 60 million years ago! This horse is sometimes called the "Dawn Horse" since it was the beginning of the species. Fossilized remains of this horse are found in Wyoming, Utah and some places in Europe. Moving forward in history by about 20 million years, the equine species evolved a bit to produce the equine called Mesophippus. Mesophippus looks much more horse-like than Eophippus. During this time the land was drying from swamp to forest and Mesophippus grew taller and the three toes started to form hooves at the base of the toes. Mesophippus' teeth were further evolved also and he could run much faster than Eophippus. About 30 million years ago, the next equine species to evolve become extremely recognizable as the forerunner of today's horses. Not only did Miohippus have hooves, he had a bunch of loose hair at the end of a furred tail - the beginning of the free-flowing tails that we see today. Miohippus looks much like a mule with the slightly blocky head and muscular build. About 20 million years ago, the world produced Merychippus. Merychippus had a mane and a basic tail. Merychippus evolved on North America and was the first Equine breed to develop specifically to live on the windswept plains. His teeth evolved to be very similar to what we see in the modern horse's mouth. He was about 35 inches tall or three feet. The same size as some ponies today. He still had some residual toes, but they no longer touched the ground and he had a true hoof. About 12 million years ago, the next step of Equine history was born - Pliohippus. This new equine needed speed to survive and the hoof continued to form and harden. Pliohippus crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America where he flourished on both continents. He grew bigger and stronger. Prehistoric humans hunted him for his food and hide. However, he died out in North and South America. Equines would not be seen again on American soil until the Spaniards brought them to help conqueror the New World. Pliohippus had a stiff upright mane, had a longer head than modern horses and had wider set eyes. He was about the size of a donkey and was very strong. In the next edition of the paper - learn how Pliohippus helped create the modern horse and how there are still breeds of prehistoric horses alive today! Comment this article Make a suggestion Comment article Name Title Comment Humans have been domesticating animals for thousands of years. Domestication is the process of taking a wild species and making them live with humans. An animal is considered to be domesticated when some part of their life has been permanently changed by living with humans. Most scientists agree that the dog was the first domesticated animal and reached domestication around 17,000 years ago. The cat is considered domesticated also, however they have only been domesticated for about 3,500 years. The horse on the other hand has only been domesticated for 4,000-6,000 years. Scientists believe that while isolated examples of domestication may have occurred around the 6,000 year mark, widespread domestication did not occur until around 4,000 BC. However, the horse of today has been much longer in the development. Horses have not always been the impressive creatures that they are today. The first recorded instance of an equine creature was Eophippus. This was a small horse that was just barely a foot tall - about 14 inches. He was a forest dwelling horse that had three toes on its hind feet and four toes on its front feet - instead of hooves. Eophippus lived around 60 million years ago! This horse is sometimes called the "Dawn Horse" since it was the beginning of the species. Fossilized remains of this horse are found in Wyoming, Utah and some places in Europe. Moving forward in history by about 20 million years, the equine species evolved a bit to produce the equine called Mesophippus. Mesophippus looks much more horse-like than Eophippus. During this time the land was drying from swamp to forest and Mesophippus grew taller and the three toes started to form hooves at the base of the toes. Mesophippus' teeth were further evolved also and he could run much faster than Eophippus. About 30 million years ago, the next equine species to evolve become extremely recognizable as the forerunner of today's horses. Not only did Miohippus have hooves, he had a bunch of loose hair at the end of a furred tail - the beginning of the free-flowing tails that we see today. Miohippus looks much like a mule with the slightly blocky head and muscular build. About 20 million years ago, the world produced Merychippus. Merychippus had a mane and a basic tail. Merychippus evolved on North America and was the first Equine breed to develop specifically to live on the windswept plains. His teeth evolved to be very similar to what we see in the modern horse's mouth. He was about 35 inches tall or three feet. The same size as some ponies today. He still had some residual toes, but they no longer touched the ground and he had a true hoof. About 12 million years ago, the next step of Equine history was born - Pliohippus. This new equine needed speed to survive and the hoof continued to form and harden. Pliohippus crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America where he flourished on both continents. He grew bigger and stronger. Prehistoric humans hunted him for his food and hide. However, he died out in North and South America. Equines would not be seen again on American soil until the Spaniards brought them to help conqueror the New World. Pliohippus had a stiff upright mane, had a longer head than modern horses and had wider set eyes. He was about the size of a donkey and was very strong. In the next edition of the paper - learn how Pliohippus helped create the modern horse and how there are still breeds of prehistoric horses alive today! Comment this article Make a suggestion Comment article Name Title Comment Make a suggestion Name Title Comment 24 comment(s) 1. Cool! by Elva (1431 days and 18 hours) Very informative! Glad to see you on this paper! 2. very detailed! by Jessykah (1431 days and 11 hours) i like the amount of detail in this article,obviosly someones been doing their reasearch! :) 3. Fab by Tamzama (1430 days and 22 hours) Love the article anyone should be awarded a rosetlet for it! 4. cool by TD (1430 days and 21 hours) this was a verry interesting article 5. Awesome !!!! by abc is easy as 123 ! (1430 days and 16 hours) i really like how u went from way back then til now ...... it was very interesting !!!! thanx !!! 6. nice by Manette (1430 days and 14 hours) Very interesting paper. how do you get to work for it. 7. I disagree by ~Suzanne~ (1430 days and 9 hours) I hate to burst your bubble, but I belive that the world is only thousands of years old, not millions. The horse may have changed over the years, but I belive it would not have taken millions of years. 8. Big Bang by Gatekeeper (1430 days and 6 hours) According to most scientist, the universe formed 15 billion years of ago. The sun is about 5 billion years old and the earth has several billion itself. The dinosaurs appears 230 million years ago and got extinct 65 million years ago. The first humanoids started roaming the Earth 5-8 million years ago, which makes it kind of hard to believe that the world is several thousand years old... Well, unless you are a hardcore religious person, in which case it would explain why you think that. 9. Equine evolution by Kaitlyn Bell (1428 days and 16 hours) In your very last paragraph, we didn't create the modern horse. God helpes us along the way. If ne1 has ne comments about my comment, get over it. Toodles! 10. !!!!! by Tootsie Roll (1427 days and 19 hours) cool!!!!!!!!!!!!totly 11. GREAT JOB EVERYONE!! by Promanade (1426 days and 21 hours) You guys do a great job and put so much efort into these articles. Keep up the good work!!! 12. Please by LaVada (1424 days and 16 hours) Do not bring in religion/politics to an article. The article is a "scientific" article based on facts approved in the SCIENTIFIC world. If you do not agree with the article, please feel free to write your own article as to how the horse is related to your religion. This is not the space to argue about evolution theory vs creation. Also, by putting a comment on here, you are opening yourself up for comments about what you said. If you don't want people to argue with your about your idea, don't post it. -LaVada 13. Ummmm by tonulooc (1422 days and 15 hours) the article is, in my opinion, a very nice piece... of fiction. i agree with Suzanne, the earth is only around 8000 years old, so it would be impossible for the horse to have been around before that. 14. sorry by pinkpanther (1421 days and 20 hours) I am forced to disagree the world is nly thousands of yearsold and would not take millions to create .... try reading genesis in the bible! I agree with ~Suzanne~ 15. From Kelsey LaBounty by Natalie Bloom (1421 days and 20 hours) I think that this article is very well researched and it is very good! Umm..........and if anyone knows how to get unmuted could someone please tell me? Please! Thank-You! 16. AWESOME JOB by LaVada (1418 days and 21 hours) Alessa, do not be discouraged. You are an excellent journalist. You chose a topic freuqently deemed controversial, and wrote about it. You used facts to support your article and stuck to the purpose. I look forward to the next installment. Although others may not agree with the content of the article, continue to write about it. They may not like it, but they read it anyway and that is the purpose of being a journalist. Your writing style is superb and the article was great. -LaVada 17. sorry by pinkpanther (1416 days and 17 hours) sorry i diagreed i just don't agree with what you wrote but you are a great journelist!!! you do a very good job i fust don't happen to agree with that theory 18. cool by lilyana belfast (1415 days and 21 hours) i know to thank god for the horsey thing 19. Cool Beans by Amante Equina (1414 days and 14 hours) huh, who wooda thought, very interesting! 20. YES IT IS by jessieLB (1411 days and 20 hours) It is so true!!!It is interesting to!!! 21. Very interesting by Jaylen (1411 days and 12 hours) I admire how you can find out all this information, very interesting. 22. very interesting by dit (1405 days and 16 hours) I love the way you wrote this article, I am not much of a reader myself but your style of writing is magnificent and made me read on throughout, I admire you for having such knowledge of the development of horses. well done xx 23. pleez consider this! by X-id (1376 days and 13 hours) ok, gotta comment on this. I dont think evolution should be mentioned in the history of the horse bcuz there iz NO proof or any evidence at all that they evolved. It is NOT a fact, but a theory that remains unproven and by many scientists, unbelieved. Im not trying to make a fight here but am just saying that you probably shouldnt go there because that subject can be very touchy. After all, what would people say if you mentioned the horse being created by God? It would turn into a mess. So please consider this before you go into the subject of evolution, to keep from offending those who believe differently. P.S.- LaVada, THESE ARE NOT FACTS!!! NOT PROVEN!! Itz no more proven than creation. P.P.S.- I agree wid Kaitlyn Bell but not Suzanne. The bible does not say how long the "days" were and nothing about the earth's age. pps- 24. Alessa by X-id (1376 days and 12 hours) Dont take any of this personally, u just probably should have considered the difference of opinion b4 writing this. I also acknowledge that uve probably read this in many books that infer that evolution is a proven fact, tho it is still a theory. Anyway, dont be hurt by our comments because you are probably a good writer too. - X-id