Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 39(1) 1996

Issue:

VOL 39(1) 1996

Keywords:

Climate, evolution, Equus

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Climate and the evolution of Equus (Perissodactyla, Equidae) in the Plio-Pleistocene of Eurasia

• Ann FORSTEN

Abstract:

The evolution of Equus in Eurasia correlates with global climatic change. Three main evolutionary events stand out: the arrival and dispersal in Eurasia of the genus Equus in the late Pliocene, the replacement of the stenonid (= zebroid) subgroup of Equus by the caballoid one in the early mid-Pleistocene, and body-size decrease in the late Pleistocene. These events seem to have been universal for Eurasia and all three appear to have been climatically induced. Their direct association with speciation is not clear.