Scientists have long wondered how the horse evolved from an ancestor with five toes to the animal we know today. While it is largely believed that horses simply evolved with fewer digits, researchers at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) pose a new theory that suggests remnants of all five toes are still present within the hooves of the horse.
For the first time, as published in Royal Society Open Science, NYITCOM researcher, Nikos Solounias, Ph.D., paleontologist and anatomy professor, and a team of researchers propose that the reduction in the number of digits is not a matter of simple attrition; instead, they believe that all five digits have merged to form the compacted forelimbs with hooves that we know today.
Currently, scientists accept that splints, small bones found along the outer sides of the metacarpal in modern horses, are partially formed remnants of second and fourth digits. Tapering mid-way down the metacarpal, these fragments were inherited from an earlier ancestor, but ceased to develop into fully formed digits in modern horses. While the NYITCOM researchers note that this explanation of the second and fourth digits is viable, they argue that it is incomplete and fails to account for the animal's first and fifth digits. Arguing that the horse is not truly monodactyl, that is, one-toed, these researchers contend that fragments of the "missing" digits can be found in the form of ridges on the backside of the splints. According to the researchers, this demonstrates that the first and fifth digits were not simply lost to evolution, but attached to their neighboring second and fourth digits.
Solounias first considered this theory in 1999 while studying fossil evidence from an eight-million-year-old horse known as Hipparion primigenium. The famous Laetoli footprints in Tanzania demonstrate Hipparion walked alongside early humans, and was believed to have had three digits. However, Solounias noticed that the bottom surface of Hipparion's fossilized forelimb appeared to be divided in five sections, as though small toes had bonded together. After further studying images of the Laetoli footprints, he confirmed his finding in several of the impressions, and considered that Hipparion not only had five compacted toes, but likely passed this trait on to its descendants.
"Interestingly, we not only find hints of the missing digits on the modern horse, but also its ancestors, such as Hipparion and Mesohippus, two species believed to have three toes," said Solounias.
Bottom of fossilized forelimb with five surfaces of differing texture, which suggests five digits are still present on today's horse [Credit: NYITCOM] |
The researchers have also discovered neurovascular evidence in support of the five-digit theory, with dissections of modern equine fetus forelimbs revealing a greater number of arteries and nerves than would be expected in a single digit.
"If today's horse does indeed have one digit per forelimb, we would expect each forelimb to have a total of two veins, two arteries, and two nerve bundles," said Danowitz. "However, our dissections found between five and seven neurovascular bundles per forelimb, suggesting that additional toes begin to develop, but do not become fully differentiated."
Source: New York Institute of Technology [January 25, 2018]