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Leopard-spotted horses existed in Europe ages ago

November 8th, 2011

Leopard-spotted horses existed in Europe ages ago

Scientist have always suspect that Leopard-spotted horses existed in Europe about 25,000 years ago but all the evidence they had was cave painting depicting spotted horses but not hard DNA evidence which they have found to prove the existence of other pre historic horse. That has now changed, New genetic evidence suggests “dappled” horses depicted in European cave art were inspired by real life, rather than the cave painters drawing and imaginary coat on a horse.

Horses, were said to be the most abundant large mammal roaming Eurasian 25,000 years ago, were a key component of early European diets. Horse are also said to account for about 30% of animals depicted in cave art. The cave art in the blogpost show dotted horses in the cave of Pech Merle in France.

You can read the heavy science of this leopard-spotted horses in details at the bbc website.

Horses