Scientists now know more precisely when humans started to change horses, and this knowledge has the potential to change human history.
Research released on Thursday in the journal Nature suggests that humans first began to disseminate domesticated horses over the planet about 4,200 years ago, as one specific lineage of horses swiftly became dominant throughout Eurasia.
This horse was unique because it had a genetic mutation that altered the curve of its back, probably making it more comfortable to ride.
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Pablo Librado, an evolutionary biologist at the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona and a co-author of the new study, stated, “In the past, you had many different lineages of horses.”
The researchers examined ancient DNA samples from 50,000-year-old archeological sites spread over Eurasia, and they found clear evidence of this genetic variety.
However, their analysis of 475 ancient horse genomes indicated a major modification that occurred about 4,200 years ago.
During that time, a particular strain that originated in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe—a plains region spanning from what is now northeastern Bulgaria through Ukraine and southern Russia—began to spread throughout Eurasia, swiftly displacing other lineages. Spain’s horses were comparable to Russian horses in three hundred years.-
