Fossil Horses - a Supposed Evolutionary Series

The fossil Eohippus appeared in the Eocene era, was about the size of a dog, had four toes on each foreleg and three on the hindleg.  Its name means 'Dawn Horse'.  The Eocene era supposedly was 50m years ago.  Subsequently Mesohippus (sheep sized) was discovered in Oligocene strata, 30m years ago.  The similarities are great, but the differences are greater, and no intermediates were found.  Merychippus is found in Miocene rocks, 15m years ago, and Dinohippus (the size of a small pony) was found in Pliocene strata, 7m years ago.

Actually there are a whole raft of these beasts - Epihippus, Miohippus, Archaeohippus, Megahippus, Stylohipparion, Nannihippus, Calippus, Pliohippus, Onohippidium, Parahipparian, Anchitherium, and Hipparion.  To be more accurate the distribution is a net, not a sequence, and no two paleontologists agree about the positioning, some disagreeing in very fundamental ways.

At this point may I quote G.G.Simpson, Professor of Embryology from 1945 to 1950 at University College, London, and Director of the British Museum of Natural History from 1950 to 1960:

"Hundreds of specimens have been found, although most of them are fragmentary....For some reason not clear to me...it is most unusual to find so much as a whole skull and skeletons anywhere near complete are exceedingly rare." (Simpson 1960 p.125-6)

Denton notes that more than a dozen pedigrees have been suggested, each created by an evolutionist but not by the rocks.  None of the sequences occur at one locality, one above another in the rocks (Denton 1985 p184).

The major point usually made by evolutionists is that as the animal evolved it grew larger and the foot bones lengthened greatly to the position of a modern horse.

"Occasionally a horse is born with one of the split bones bearing toes.  The end one may even bear a greatly reduced hoof.  This condition is similar to that found in some of the fossils of supposedly prehistoric horses.  It would be easy to conclude that the fossilized remains of such a horse represented a form ancestral to the modern horse." (Klotz 1959)

Indeed it would be easy to conclude that, but at least one leading evolutionist appears to have his doubts:

"Perhaps the most widely known example is the evolution of Equus from 'little Eohippus', frequently represented as a steady 'orthogenetic' progression.  Examined with care it is nothing of the sort....Change in the number of toes and foot structure was never a steady trend but was transformed quite rapidly three times, and each of the last two times saw various lineages that were not affected and remained on the evolutionary level reached earlier." (Simpson 1960 p167)

It is a uncomfortable fact that all genera of the supposed evolution of the horse have been found in N.America, but the modern horse, Equus caballus, originated in Europe and was introduced into N.America by early explorers.  This horse was probably derived from Equus sivalensis (from Pakistan).  Just to compound the problem there are two animals running around in the world today, the bone structure of each of which is almost indistinguishable from Eohippus.  One is the Daman in East Africa, and the other is the Hyrax which inhabits Syria.  Quite where all that leaves Eohippus and its supposed descendants is an interesting question.

References:
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Denton, M., (1985) 'Evolution, a theory in crisis', Adler & Adler, Maryland
Klotz, J.W., 'Darwin, Evolution and Creation', Ed P.Zimmermann Concordia (1959) p121
Simpson, G.G., 'The Evolution of Life', Univ of Chicago Press (1960)