The origin of Nature’s horse is finally set

The horse was first domesticated in the Ponte-Caspian steppe of the North Caucasus, and then conquered other parts of Eurasia within a few centuries

Where did modern horses first be domesticated? When did they conquer the rest of the world? How did they replace the countless other types of horses that existed at the time? In the joint efforts of 162 archeology, paleogenetics, and linguistics scientists Next, this long-standing archaeological mystery has finally been solved

A few years ago, Ludovic Orlando's team visited the Botai site in Central Asia, which provided the oldest archaeological evidence of horse dressing

Therefore, the scientific expedition team decided to expand the scope of research to the entire Eurasian continent.

This strategy has paid off: Although Eurasia was once inhabited by genetically different horse herds, great changes took place between 2000 and 2200 BC

Then, a single gene map previously limited to the Pontiac Steppe (Northern Caucasus) began to spread beyond its original region, replacing all wild horse populations from the Atlantic Ocean to Mongolia in a few centuries

But how do you explain this rapid population growth? Interestingly, scientists have found that the genome of this horse has two significant differences from the genomes of other horses that it replaces: one is related to more docile behavior, the other is Shows that the spine is stronger

This study also showed that the spread of horses in Asia was at the same time as the Spoke Chariot and Hindi

Nature

DOI

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