Peter Lanza age 15, of Ozone Park, N.Y. for his question:
What was eohippus?
His name means the Dawn Horse and he lived when the Age of Mammals was dawning. This was in the Eocene Epoch of earth s history, when the Tertiary Period and the Cenozoic Era were beginning. In plain figures, eohippus enjoyed life on earth about 50 million years ago. He was a pretty, timid little fellow and you never would have guessed him to be the ancestor of our noble horse.
Eohippus was no bigger than a fox. Ho had a gracefully arched neck, a flowing mane and a horsy tail. But he had no hooves. Eohippus had feet with toes. He wore four toes on each front foot and three on each hind foot. We know what the dainty creature looked like because he left his fossil bones for us to find.
We know, too, where eohippus lived. He lived in North America, for nowhere else in the world have we found his fossil bonus. This means that the proud and beautiful horse family got its start in the New World. Here is its cradle and its homeland.
Little eohippus enjoyed life in what is now our Western Prairieland. But the scenery and the climate were very different from what they are now. An older range of Rockies was lower and worn smooth by the weather. There was no Grand Canyon and the Mississippi joined the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Illinois.
The climate was warm and gentle. Palms and fig trues thrived in Canada, Magnolias bloomed in Alaska. Alligators basked in the streams of North Dakota. Our dry prairies were dotted with lakes, green forests and patches of soft, lush grass.
Eohippus dined on these soft grasses. He wandered from meadow to meadow with his timid herd. The tallest in his family measured only 11 inches at shoulder level. He grazed in fear, always ready to dash off into hiding. For he was hunted by foxes, wild dogs and hungry cats.
As time went on, these meat eaters were not the only enemies of eohippus. The climate becam cold. The soft grasses died and were replaced by the tough prairie variety. His meat‑eating enemies grew bigger and more speedy.
But the horse, even then, was a noble animal and hardship did not get him down. Ho grew taller. He grew stronger teeth to chew the tough grass. Best of all, he grew morn fleet, always ready for a fast takeoff, he stood poised on one toe of each foot. After ages of time this toe became a hoof. Hoof‑footed animals can run fast ‑ and they can kick. They also can travel far and many horses migrated to Asia and ever to Europe.
Ten million years ago the children of eohippus resembled our modern horse. Then came tragedy which even this noble animal could not sustain. For some reason we do not know the horse died out in North America Our American horses today are descended from those who left their homeland ages ago to live in Asia and Europe.