The specimens were found in what is now an arid desert. But at the time this grass-eating horse roamed the planet, the region would have been covered in grasslands and shrubby woods -- rich grounds for grazing.
Fossilized traces of the horse, which was named Eurygnathohippus woldegabrieli, were uncovered in the archaeologically rich sites of Aramis and Gona in Ethiopia's Middle Awash valley. The region is famed for bearing the world's longest and most continuous record of human evolution.
The extinct horse in this study would have actually been alive at the same time the 4.4-million-year-old human ancestor Ardipithecus ramidus, or "Ardi," walked the region.
"Among the many fossils we found are the two ends of the foreleg bone -- the canon -- brilliant white and well preserved in the red-tinted earth," study researcher Scott Simpson, of Case Western Reserve's School of Medicine, said of the horse discovery.
The leg bone bits indicate this horse had longer legs than its ancestors. The shape and size of the leg suggest the beast was a fast runner, a skill that may have helped it flee predators like lions, sabre-tooth cats, Simpson and colleagues say.
"Grasses are like sandpaper," Simpson explained in a statement. "They wear the teeth down and leave a characteristic signature of pits and scratches on the teeth so we can reliably reconstruct their ancient diets."
The horse's teeth show signs of another departure from more ancient species: With crowns worn flatter than the teeth found on its ancestors, it seems this creature became adapted to a life of grazing. An analysis of the enamel on the fossilized teeth provided further evidence that it subsisted on grass like today's zebras, wildebeests and white rhinoceroses, the scientists say.
Read more at Discovery News
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