Information supplied by Google News
35,000 Year Old DNA Indicates Some Horses Were “Spotted”
Picture courtesy of Google News
Spotted horses in stone-age cave paintings may be accurate representations of wild animals that lived 25,000 years ago, a study has suggested.
Scientists used ancient DNA to test the realism of the prehistoric paintings.
Experts have long debated whether the pictures are true depictions of the natural environment or have deeper abstract or symbolic meanings.
In particular, questions have been raised about paintings which depict white horses with dark spots.
Previous DNA studies had only produced evidence for black and bay pre-domestic horses.
The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first genetic evidence that dappled horses with “leopard spotting” existed when the paintings were made.
An international team of scientists analysed DNA from 31 horses dating back as far as 35,000 years from Siberia, Eastern and Western Europe and the Iberian peninsula.
The researchers found six European bone and teeth DNA samples sharing a gene known to be associated with leopard spotting.
In addition, 18 horses had a bay coat colour and seven were black, demonstrating that all colour types identifiable in cave paintings could be found in early wild horse populations.
Professor Michi Hofreiter, from the University of York, said: “Our results suggest that, at least for wild horses, Palaeolithic cave paintings, including the remarkable depictions of spotted horses, were closely rooted in the real-life appearance of animals.”
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
So, the Nez Perce bred the Appaloosa from horses who had run free and been able to shed some domesticity here in North America. Knapstruppers from Scandinavia are also a lovely leopard horse. Our wild ones are precious to us. They hold many secrets. Will be able to study them all one day?
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The Appaloosa has been shown in cave, ancient chinese vases, and other very old artistic renditions. The Nez Pierce acquired them and made them into a superior breed.
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I think the spots were there all along and the Nez Perce brought them out.
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Mar,
Yesterday the veterans of Texas and USMC Major General Williams honored me as one of the seven rising stars of Texas. It was at the La Cima Club , full of wild mustang sculptures and painting in Los Colinas
http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/La-Cima-Club
Not preplanned
At my table was Dr. John Wise professor at SMU. Dr. Wise and his wife Dr. Pia Vogel have agreed to research and teach wild mustangs at Southern Medthodist University. So all prevet and premed at SMU will have this as part of their training. Last spring they agreed to do this. During their summer vacation with their children they were hiking in northern New Mexico. They were surprised by a band of wild mustangs. Needless to say they were even more confident in their decision.
The new company “Wild Mustang” will use 20 percent of the gross revenues to fund this work.
So hug a Marine on our 236 birthday ,Thursday and say thank you to our veterans Friday.
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From a Vietnam Era USAF Texas vet; Congrats, RJ!
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That is such wonderful news that the Professors will actually research and teach about our Wild ones.
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Congratulations on the honor, RJ, and on your good fortune with seating arrangements! Luck … destiny … who knows? I opened the La Cima link, and the first image of their slide show is the centerpiece of Williams Square … a band of magnificent wild horses splashing across a stream. I remember the sculpture well, because I spent two weeks at a seminar near the plaza shortly after its installation. Here’s a bit about the artist, Robert Glenn, and the evolution of “The Mustangs of Las Colinas”:
http://www.mustangsoflascolinas.com/History.html
And an image from Wiki:
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RJ, This is great news. Congratulations on your surprise honors! The course work to be offered at Southern Methodist University are something for me to follow up on; happily.
My man is a former Marine so both your requests will be met.
thanks
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I submitted a grant proposal to study exactly these types of things in our wild herds, in order to add more proof to their global significance and importance, to demonstrate that losing them is more than just a loss to the US. It was one of the proposals selected out of 3000 applications submitted, to be sent on for further consideration. Won’t know until this summer whether they want to fund the proposal or not. If it is selected for funding, I will be recruiting people to help who have been supportive of my decade or so efforts at helping the Wild horse, on all continents.
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Please keep us informed of your application’s progression, it sounds very, very interesting.
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Yes, do keep us informed! I am trying to decide what I want to get my PhD in, and equine genetics is one of my top two choices. I would love to check out your research if it goes through…heck I’d love to help you! 🙂
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One of my dreams has been for a wild horse based Masters and a Doctorate to come out of the our herds. Maybe you will be the first, Carrie. It has been a long time coming! The wild ones need studying on the range as that will be the Only way to create management that will be complimentary as well as necessary.
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Spotted horses occur in old Asian panitings as well.
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Spots disrupt the outline of the horse especially from a distance
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Exactly, and so the spots are very ancient in the horses lines.
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Camo spots, so to speak! Defense mechanism.
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Fascinating! Makes perfect sense what Craig said; spotted coloration could have provided camouflage then just as it does now.
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Very interesting. I too would like to know more about this and think it would be a good subject to research on. Especially, when there is so much up in the air about horses not being native to the US. Maybe something could prove this issue once and for all.
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There is no debate that the horse evolved here in North America over a period of 55 million years. They also evolved in various other parts of the world in different times and places, but the horse migrated from North America to Asia, North America to Europe, North America to South America, from Asia to Africa, from Eurpe to Africa. If you accept the tectonic plate theory, North America and Europe were once one mass of land. The Rise of the Horse, 55 Million Years of Evolution by German Paleoanthropology Jens Lorenz Franzen and Translated by Kristen M. Brown tells this story persuasively with pictures of ancient bones, teeth, charts, and diagrams. The Genome Project from the University of Copenhagen determined that Equus caballus DNA existed in the Alaskan permafrost. A graph identified the DNA as that of Equus caballus, not Equus or Equus anything else.
What this report also said is that there is no way to know whether this DNA belonged to the last groups of horses or not. It was possible that other groups existed at this same time. However, the time the horses were in the area tested was more limited than that of the Mammoth. This does not mean that the horses did not migrate to other areas. Yet, the DNA needsmto have been deposited in the perm frost.
I have often wondered about the herds where the dorsal stripe appears could be descendants from horses that never left the continent. That would be so cool.
However, I think there are we have government agencies bound and determined that these horses will never be genetically tested. I just hope some of us have some of these horses, so that there will be some who can be tested to find the linkage.
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Well, ladies, it seems the “fairer sex” may have had a longer relationship with horses (or at least painting horses in caves) than previously thought.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/index.html
The progression of pages shows how the male/female difference was determined. Note at the left part of the image, the hand seems to be where the horse’s head would be, and the horse appears to be standing. If it were depicting a hunt, I would think the horse would be running. Was this ancient artist stroking a captured horse, or perhaps wishing to do so? Hmmm …
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This is a non-scientific history of the spotted horse, ancestor of the Spanish Jennet. Very interesting, and includes the same cave painting.
http://www.spanishjennet.org/history.shtml
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I love to read the research on the ancient horses. One book I have has a painting of Andalusians, not ancient but around the 14th century showing all colours including spots.
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When it comes to our “Wild Herds” its obvious that none of them are any type of scholars nor have they read any books on the early horse. This so fascinating and unbelievable. The documentation is there and is just for the finding. The histiory of the Appaloosa is facinating as well as the other Spansh breeds that came at one time. Instead of rounding up these horses and burros the BLM should be documenting these herds and their DNA. But of course they seem to be illerate when it comes to doing any cataloguing or the documenting of the horses. This is what our tax dollars should be spent on and not the torture/death of the burros and wild horses.
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Animals that are truly indigenous and constant over the landscape of North America are just as whacked by citizens and governments (bison, wolves, etc) as wild equines. What is more sickening is that the wild horse and burros are SUPPOSED to be “protected” by law and Act of Congress….and they still find ways to whack them.
And I still believe that wild equines remained in NA.
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There will be nothing left to study if the BLM is not stopped.
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