Equus giganteus Animal Pictures

Equus giganteus

© Jonathan Chen / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. – License / Original

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Skeleton of the extinct Western Horse (Equus occidentalus), George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California.

Equus occidentalus
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Due to the fragmentary nature of the fossils of this species found so far, it has been difficult to reconstruct how the head and the rest of this horse's body might have looked. This is the equus occidentalus.

Equus, the fossil (?) horse, the last specimen of five stages in equine evolution. U of S, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Equus
© Mike Beauregard / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. — License (Original)

Skeleton of Equus occidentalis on display at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Equus occidentalis
© Jonathan Chen / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. — License (Original)

Interestingly, modern North American Horses are not direct descendants of the ancient varieties. All American wild horse species died off about 12,000 years ago during the great American extinction.