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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.พ. 2022
- Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA…Because, as it turns out, the history of humans and horses has been a pretty wild ride.
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Wow, those cave drawings are amazing. Like, not "for their time" amazing but actually amazing. They could've been drawn today and I'd still be impressed.
Have you seen Werner Herzog's Cave of Dreams? It's an in depth movie about them. Beautiful.
To think that the artist journeyed to the heart of a pitch black cave just to paint. It is honestly amazing how they did it.
@@Neenerella333 yes, and it's actually more of an animation then a drawing, if you see it with fire the horses look like they are moving. It's a masterpiece.
@@shankhadeepshome3982 whaaaa? Amazing
Me, too. Apparently, Picasso was impressed by them as well.
Those cave paintings are gorgeous. Transcends time itself.
Yes! I was blown away by how beautiful and realistic they are, most I've seen are, while still beautiful, much more stylized.
The cave lion really spoke to me. The outline of its skull, the curve under the eye, all the dots where the whiskers were… The artist clearly spent a *lot* of time looking at them. And I’m glad they did because now we have an accurate account of how they looked!
That guy was a genius.
This is science: facts are challenged and changed to fit new evidences, not the other way around. Kudos to PBS Eons for acknowledging their previous video about the horses' origins and how that's being challenged by new evidences found in such a short span of time since its publication. 👏👏👏
It's well worth your time to read that 2021 paper and just before.
It also spawned a few TH-cam videos. In them you can read about how it is not necessary to put a bit in a horse's mouth by people who learned to ride as children and several opinions from different points of interest.
I think this is what is so hard for people who choose to believe in faith primarily. To them the facts are unchanging and forever so to deal with something that is ever changing based on new evidence is a challenging concept for them to accept so they discredit it.
Tell that to the people who tried to dismiss the fact the COVID was a lab leak and a year later was proved wrong
Facts don’t change, theories do
@@blank1778 _Nothing_ has been proven about the origin of covid as of now. I just had this debate with family members, so I looked at the scientific literature, and there is a huge controversy going on between scientists who don't think the lab hypothesis is true and scientists who think the hypothesis is _possible_ . (So as you can see there's no censorship or this prominent debate couldn't happen.) I haven't seen one scientist who got published in a reputable journal who said that the lab leak is _definitely_ true. That's the big difference between you and scientifically literate people. You speak in absolutes and pretend like the evidence is definite, while the real scientists are honest and say that it could be, but that it isn't definite.
So both dismissing the lab leak hypothesis and saying it's 100% true is (with the current evidence as of winter 2022!) incredibly dumb.
Fascinating! It's hard to overstate how important horses have been to human civilization.🐎🐎🐎
Why didn't insects evolve better breathing systems
And cows. It's easy to forget that one random person when we started domesticated horses, they would insist on cows being the future. There is always that one person fighting against everyone else. I AM JUST JOKING. I can feel their ghost haunting me...
For the vast majority of human history, the fastest form of long distance communication was a person on a horse.
@@swimdownx6365 Didn't need to. they work just fine for an insects life.
@@swimdownx6365 what is your point?
thank you for being willing to acknowledge statements that have since been disproven from your previous videos, it really increases respect for and trust in this channel :)
Except all those fools, like creationists carping about how you can't trust science because it changes.
@R D
He talks about how this channel previously reported that the origin of domesticated horses was a place in Kazakhstan, but more has been learned since that was thought.
2:53 Start of the statement
3:03 Reference to earlier episodes
@R D I think you may be the one that needs to take a critical thinking class. You don't seem to understand what this person is saying. Make sure to calm down and read the comment properly next time
@@PabloSanchez-qu6ibmainly christians
I wonder if little girls thousands of years ago went through that phase where they love horses. Almost every girl I've ever met had a period between age 5 to 10 where they wanted a pony.
I don't believe they had cartoons that time :)
Only Fauci gets to say when the science changes everything else is missinformation
Yes, a gentle, powerful meet exactly a little girls best friend.
Or never grew out of it.🐴🙂
@@swimdownx6365 that’s literally not even the topic of this video. Also, Fauci is a dog abuser. I wouldn’t trust any of his findings.
5:00 - This is exactly the location and time of the Yamnaya culture which is a good candidate as the homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language. Domesticating horses may have given them an immense agricultural and military advantage that allowed their descendants to spread across Europe and Central Asia.
Exactly what I thought about 👍
horses are probably why indo europeans conquered europe and south asia in such a short period of time - they had tanks. they also were probably horse-milk-drinking freaks
Sintashta Culture
Yes, they were also obsessed with horses and chariots so they obviously understood the importance
@@hyoneeyed9450 From what I read, I understood that the idea of an invasion isn't quite accurate. It was more like a mass migration which varied in violence or in peace.
I haven't finished the video yet but I just wanted to thank the team at PBS Eons for their work captioning the videos they release.
It's very, very helpful for us hard of hearing folks. Don't forget that there's more than just the deaf that benefit greatly from CC.
Couldn’t agree more. I have hearing loss from loud concerts and time in the military so it’s the primary reason. However it also allows me to watch w/o disturbing my parter while they sleep and be a considerate neighbor due to paper thin apartment walls.
I've got adhd and difficulties focusing. Using sound and caption at once helps me understand what I'm hearing better :)
help me alot since english is not my mother tongue with some scientific terms keep it up
Helps me since I’m watching this on mute, in bed at 4:00 AM
@@stuarthenry7716 wish I had neighbours like you xD
Over here I usually take the subtitles to managed to follow up regardless of sound polution from street traffic and neighbours.
I'm personally wondering what Stone Age Steve-O told his buddies "hey, watch this" and inadvertently changed human-equine relations forever.
LOL Brilliant! 🤣😂 I have to really laugh because Steve-O grew up here in Albuquerque! I have to admit, I really laugh like crazy at all their stunts. Bet they have huge medical insurance bills!
Yep. Probably started with the Stone Age Steve O having a soft heart, after screwing up a hunt and taking a nursing mare by mistake. Then keeping the little bugger around for a couple years. Then winding up getting ALL hammered one fine evening....
Nahhh, was probably the daughter of a Stone Age Steve-O who wanted to have a pony. And Stone Age Steve-O got out to get one for his little princess.
Imagine some early human going "hey ya'll watch this" and rode by on the food.
They probably could not ride the first horses though, they were the size of a poney, and probably had a fragile spine ^^
There's a reason why most ancient cultures used chariots instead of riders ;)
Probably after indulging in multiple fermented beverages.
I present to you.... bull riding! 😂
Fnirglwatz! Stop playing with your food!
Interesting theory I've heard is that the mobility gained from horses is what allowed the Proto-Indo-European culture to spread. Thus leading to the giant widespread language family we have today.
Have you read any of Gayle Highpine's research, using linguistics to elucidate when/where genocides were a part of war?
Whoever made these paintings was a true artist. No art classes. Just pure raw talent and in my opinion right up there with the greats. Just beautiful and thought provoking.
As both a long-term fan of your channel, and a Jockey where my career is riding and working with these beautiful animals, this video made my absolute day!
They really have been with us for some of the most important milestones in human history, our lives would be so different today if not for the horse!
Don't forget about all the empires and cultures that didn't have horses :)
They are impressive though!
@R D horses
when talking about engines, we would use the term "donkey power"
5:00 Very striking to see that the spread of modern domesticated horses seems to fit exactly with the period linguists have long given for the breakup and diffusion of the Indo-European language family (where the rule of thumb has always been ‘5000-7000 years ago’). This specific region identified has long been one of the leading candidates for the Indo-European ‘homeland’, and it is clear that Indo-European had several words relating to horses and their domesticated uses, more or less uniquely amongst other languages reconstructed to that date. This feels like highly suggestive independent confirmation from a different discipline of the leading theory of the Indo-European homeland and timeline.
First thought after seeing the title:
"Foals are friends, not food."
Ha! Finding Nemo reference.
I really appreciate that your channel updates us when the science is updated.
You, and apparently David Attenborough as well, happen to be pronouncing Przewalski surprisingly well for a native English speaker. Except I can't really hear the P at its beginning. But otherwise you're doing a very good job. It's funny that the "-rzewal- part sounds very similar to the French "cheval", which means horse.
Same here, I was just about to write for him not to worry about the pornunciation. But it could use more plosive "p" at the beginning, but otherwise nice.
One of the big issues we forget to think about with lacking archeological/paleontological evidence is that of civilization/property. You can’t dig up fossils if there’s an urban sprawl in the way…I wonder how much data we miss simply by existing literally above the past.
Luckily lots of those fossils/evidence is found as during construction surveys have to be made. This is often how various ship wreckages are found in coastal cities
Alexandria is constantly dealing with this, and Mexico City to a lesser extent
That's a bit of a two-edged sword. In many areas if there's going to be new construction then there must be a survey first to make sure they don't cover valuable findings. But if it's development that precedes those policies or in areas without that requirement then knowledge gets buried deeper and lost to us.
That actually becomes relavant in Europe all the time, and i suppose in any urbanized Part of the Planet. I live near Cologne and they constant dig Up ancient Bronze age stuff when they want to do any Kind of construction Work. Near the river they dig Up ancient ... Well... Dumps. But thats where we find the best Roman and germanic glass Work. Spanning centuries.
In London, the First Thing you tend to dig Up is... Cemetaries. Cuz it's so frigging huge that every single Spot has been used as a cemetary AT LEAST once. Quite often you even find ones from different centuries on top of each other.
On the other hand construction and land development have uncovered many fossils (and archeological sites) that might have never been excavated for budget or environmental reasons, or simply because people would have never thought to look. I guess you gain some, you lose some.
As Polish, I can say - your Przewalski's pronunciation is excellent! :)
Beautiful country Poland and culture
Love this episode. Just finished reading “The Horse, The Wheel and Language” by David Anthony. Amazing!
I'm reading it myself,almost to the end. Very in depth and awesome.
There is a herd of P-horses in SE Ohio at The Wilds along with Persian Onagers and Grevy's Zebras. The Zebras generally stay towards the center of the pastures, but the P-horses come right up to the bushes and trams. They have learned that the vehicles' air conditioning systems help blow the flies off of them.
There are feral colony's of zebras in Ohio?
@@justsomecryptidwithinterne9873 The Wilds is a 10,000 acre conservation center associated with the Columbus Zoo. Not sure if that qualifies these zebra as being feral.
@@Lexivor horses hang out with Zebras in Ohio?
When stabled, we oftentimes put fans on the horses in the summer. Anyone who doesn’t is just ignorant.
So, if understood correctly, horses were domesticated around 2200 BC which means that Ancient Egypt was going about their business for a thousand years before they were introduced to this revolutionary new technology that changed everything?
It took quite a while for the horses to actually change everything. You needed war horses, not small ponies.
That's why chariots were the game back then, not cavalry. And even for the chariots, it took hundreds of years before you actually saw chariot warfare, and not just the use of them as transport to the battle site.
Another fascinating "Egypt is old" fact is Mammoths were walking on this planet when they built the pyramids.
Yup. Horses weren't introduced into Egypt until around 1500 BC. Donkeys and cattle were the main draft animals, even after horses were introduced they were primarily only used by the wealthy.
The Egyptians were conquered by a chariot using people, I believed called the Hyksos. After Egypt freed themselves, they kept the horses and chariots, and the Pharaohs loved having carvings of themselves in chariots made. Kinda like the shirtless Putin on horseback.
That's amazing.
Yeah that was known for a while. The sumerians made fun of people that rode horses calling them rubes and barbaric
this channel is the absolute epitome of my life
How come insects didn't evolve better breathing systems and Fauci gets to say when the science changes everything else is missinformation
@@swimdownx6365 wha?
Of course we are still enchanted with horses - they're magical! As a person who's been "horse crazy" her whole life (really: we have a photo of me at 6 months old being held in a saddle!) - this video was FANTASTIC! Incredible that the science has made such leaps in a relatively short period of time - and wonderful that you guys were able to bring us the new information and explain so clearly just why and how these VERY determined scientists managed to discover it!
Horses were an intricate part of the development and expansion of indo European languages, cultures, and pre-christian spirituality throughout Eurasia. They allowed the indo European tribes to revolutionize nomadic life along with the wheel and the cart. They were absolutely essential to the way of life and death of the ancestors of all modern native European nations. Usually PBS makes a point to give a shout out to the indigenous cultures impacted by the topic of the video. Since they didn't this time, I figured it was appropriate to post interesting facts about the concerned associated cultural history.
This
it's interesting because the first Polish language dictionary (published in 1746) described a horse like this "Horse: Everyone knows what a horse is."
You have no idea how disappointed I was when I learned the spelling of Przewalski only to be told, "We call them P-horses; don't write the full name down."
Still a great word for scrabble
You can still impress a Polish person by putting the 'z' and 'w' in the right places
The correct name would be Kerkulan
@@samalaimukhametova7290 That would have been MUCH easier to spell! Glad I know now.
@@slwrabbits ,this is what the people living in these lands called, where this breed was born, then during the Russian Empire it was rediscovered by a scientist calling Przhevalsky by his last name
Its amazing that horse domestication is younger than the Great Pyramids.
Not necessarily.
It's simply that the horses that remain domesticated today, descended from *that* specific line of domestication.
There are fossil records that indicate potential domestication, or at least symbiotic living arrangements, much further back in history.
The current DNA analysis indicates that current horses all survived out of this specific area....
Hypothesis for why vary greatly, and the various hypotheses expose the biases held by various groups.
What we absolutely know is that there used to be a much wider genetic variety of horses than we have today (explained most often by parallel evolution).
We do not have fossil records for the past 5,000 years showing the other genetic variations of equus.
Today, we have domestic horses that are all believed to be descendants from this specific area in Russia, based on modern genetics.
Wild horses were enslaved and helped building the pyramids though
2:05 Attenborough will indeed always have the final word with anything animal-related!
Unless science marches on.
I owned horses when I was younger and was fascinated with how they came about. I read so many books. Horses are an amazing animal. Smart and compassionate as well. I spent many days with just my beautiful, funny and loving Miss-T who was half Arabian and half Quarter Horse. I also became an artist because of my love of drawing them at the beginnig.
I so miss those days!
Thank you for all the new info on these great creatures that really helped mankind in moving forward.
As to that region in Ukraine / Russia / Kazakhstan, it was likely the Proto-Indo-European homeland, and the people there spread out with their horses and PIE dialects. So we know what they called their horses: ek’wos.
I thought ekwos were space tribal bears.
Not only the homeland of your ancestors
0:20 I had no idea cave art got that detailed. Those are some really good horse drawings.
You owe it to yourself to watch "Cave of forgotten dreams" by Werner Herzog. Our ancestors were no dummies, they had the same brain size as we do today. It's just that most of the world was new to them.
Cave art is so wonderful!!
5:59 Interesting, this theory fit with the theory of the proto-indo-european people expansion, who started to spread around 4000 bc and they were from between the Don and Volga
This also fits in with the archaeological evidence from the Near East, which suggests that the introduction of the horse and chariot came from the Mitanni and Hittites. Both groups have Indo-Aryan/Indo-European names and languages, suggesting that both groups came from the same region where the horse was domesticated.
Makes sense, the first people to use horses to war, should dominate the others.
According to the video, modern horses developed around 4000 years ago. That would make it 2000 bc not 4000 bc. I think the video guy errored with his statements.
@@MatthewChenault Mitanni is Afro-Asiatic (Semetic), not Indo-Aryan.
@@TragoudistrosMPH, the name of their kings were Indo-Aryan and the gods they worshipped also had Indo-Aryan names, suggesting a connection between the Mitanni and the Indo-Aryan group that would later come to inhabit India.
This also makes sense considering that the Hittites - their northern rival - came from the Indo-European linguistic group. More likely than not, they would have come from Central Asia, nearby where the horse was first domesticated, and moved southward into the Near East. This is backed up by the fact that the Mitanni were _superb_ horsemen and excellent charioteers, which would make sense if they were Indo-Aryan.
Thanks so much for continuing to update us on new findings/research being released. It really helps us casuals stay informed :)
This is awesome! Maybe a video on the domestication of camels?
Camels in general, really. Did you know they were an arctic genus?
@@LolUGotBusted They did a video on camels in North America I think
@@LolUGotBusted I do remember a video where they mentioned a camel found far up north.
@@LolUGotBusted There was a video on those arctic camels, done on this channel.
I have had horses my whole life and never knew this. Thank you!
They're beautiful creatures!
And delicious too tbh
Beautiful sausages
Why didn't insects evolve better breathing systems
@@swimdownx6365 although they are not insects, some spiders can breathe underwater & scorpions can go without breathing underwater for up to 8 hours.
@@jacobhoover1654 focus on the insects. Because you know if they start to breath better then they will get bigger and challenge humans strongly.
"They were harvesting them, from the wild, for food."
A very tactful way of saying it haha.
Today they are bred for food. At least in Switzerland, where you will find horsemeat in many supermarkets/grocery stores. It's still a cultural thing which animals are considered to be edible and allowed to eat.
@@Andreas_42 Or Italy. Both countries consider themselves to be super sophisticated BTW.
Several traditional draft breeds would have become extinct except for their use as meat animals. Draft horses are my favorite but I've never eaten one and am not sure that I would.
@@Andreas_42 It is also a relict of a social thing; horse meat was for ages poor mans meat at the time there were as much horses in the city as people drawing cars, couches and omnibusses.... and dying in the city too.
When I was a student I got tipped for cheap steak and that turned out to be at the last horsebutcher in the city.
Thank you guys for continuously making new videos. I have really bad insomnia and have to do something that's engaging enough to keep my mind from wandering but not so engaging(after I've watched each video three times to get the excitement down) that I stay up and watch it. These are absolutely perfect! I've watched every video many times and each time I memorize a little bit more. I'm so thankful to have come across this channel.
Fun fact : the location of the ancestors of modern horse, which might be Pontic steppe, was also a birthplace of Proto-Indo-European language, which descended into many languages between Portugal and India.
They *are* still food on several parts throughout the world and cultures though
Yep, their meat is good and tasty. Can prove that.
@Leo the Anglo-Filipino Also mongolia east russia or siberia even canada
I've eaten horse in France. It isn't widely eaten, but it is found in many markets and butcher shops.
@Leo the Anglo-Filipino indeed and as you can see on previous comment it is known in france and canada too
Horse is also a popular meat in Central America, especially Belize, as the horses handle the heat better than cows.
Incredible content, I wish there were more documentaries like this. Horses and dogs must be the top 2 domestic species that have changed human history.
I remember reading this article when it came out. You guys did a good job contextualizing and describing it, as always!
Eons is so dang awesome. Way to talk about how the science is amended over time as our methods improve! Such a great example!
Wow!!! The best horse history video I have seen!!! Great job and the DNA/gene graphics were well illustrated and tell the story. Loved Blake's narration. "What was I talking about?"
They are friend and food especially in Japan
In Italy too 😂
In Kazakhstan it's staple food, an integral part of cuisine, one of main types of meat in life of an average Kazakh. We even have pizzas and burgers with horse meat. Horses for Kazakh horse meat are grown specifically for that reason. You will never eat the horse you ride on.
Here in chile too
@@mathildeperez-huet1760 most of Italy's horse meat come from Argentina iirc
@@mathildeperez-huet1760 There is legislation pending to stop export of horse meat from the US. About damn time too. My personal opinion, don't need anybody elses comments thanks.
Eons is hands down my favorite TH-cam channel. So good -- EVERY TIME!!
“Around 2000 BC horses originating in the Russian steppe spread all over eurasia and became the dominant kind of horse”
Me: “ohhhhh so it was the indo-europeans”
I wonder if it was the result of breeding for better warhorses, or a lucky mutation they found and exploited to ride out of the steppes and replace the human and equine genomes
@@marcduquesne2876 I can imagine it started off the way modern Siberian nomads harvest raindeer where the deer are semi-wild and followed by humans. The humans follow the herd and kill and eat some but protect the rest from other predators. Some of the foals were probably taken care of by humans, perhaps even as pets or favorite animals. Eventually, one foal was born, that was particularly ok with people and somebody came to the idea of putting stuff on its back to help out during the constant move to follow the herd. Then the selection for a more docile horse with a stronger back started.
@@marcduquesne2876 They didn't ride out, at least into battle, since the horses found outside the step after the domestication were the same small Przewalski look alikes.
But they did genocide their way to other places yes, aided by the horse to move their culture much more effectively than walking.
Think of it like the first chariots. It took quite a while until warfare was done from them, and not just a transport to the battle for the most effluent warriors. Heck in Britain they used them in this way all the way to the Roman invasion.
The first horses were used in the same way.
@@benghazi4216 the way I understood it, it wasn’t exactly a genocide, rather they toppled leadership and established their languages as lingua francae, since afaik there’s no such thing as an ethnic indo-European
@@marcduquesne2876 a lot of archeologists think it's precisely that. As in the the Sintashta Culture and their daughter cultures that bred these horse for their invention the chariot. Chariots and the horses bred to pull them became popular and spread very quickly every where from Africa to East Asia. Fun fact - the Sintashta culture is the most likely 'ancestral' culture of the peoples that moved into south Asia and spoke Sanskrit - their cultural practices were written down in the Rig Veda.
great to see you guys active!
I always watch all your videos twice. There's a lot of information I don't want to miss.
OMG, the "What was I talking about?" killed me. It caught me so off guard. hahahahahahah
No kidding they nailed that depiction. I never knew these horses existed before now, and had always snickered at the funny stunted horse cave drawings. Just, wow. And they did this with like charcoal and such.
Charcoal and umber are things artists still use now
And with only the light of torches made of rushes or branches. A really incredible achievement.
@@tsm688 True, but we have like, lights and erasers lolol. These boys had some sticks that didn't burn all the way xD
Amazing episode. Will you do a separate one on the donestication of donkey? At first I thought you might mention them as well in this episode but I see that you didn't.
I guess Europe didn't get the memo on this change.
Nah it's just anglo-saxons that are weird, I've heard you don't even eat rabbit XD
@@krankarvolund7771 I think it's mostly North America that has such reduced meat options. Even lamb is unusual here. I think over-industrialization has made beef, chicken, and pork so much cheaper than anything else, anything else has become a specialty product
Coming back to this channel after some time... this channl is truly larger than life
It’s impressive how good some of them were as artists considering what they had to work with and work on
I'm truly curious how artimina ( brine shrimp), fairy shrimp, and the little triops evolved. These little guys inhabit brine pools, and freshwater pools in deserts that completely dry up. The only reason they 'rise from the dead' is because their eggs are designed to go through diapause, basically hibernating until conditions are perfect for them to hatch, grow, and reproduce. In some cases this happens in as little as a week or two!
Fascinating episode! I am wondering, if the spread of modern horses is connected to the spread of indo-germanic languages. Their roots are also assumed in a similar part of Russia. Would love to see that in an episode (-;
I love that this channel comes back with updates on what they've said before
This has to be one of the most wholesome channels on TH-cam
Do have issues with the from food part. Nomadic people would eat what was available even horses as an easily available protein source. Found horse on the menu on a Japanese mall a couple of years back.
Why didn't insects evolve better breathing systems
@@swimdownx6365 what ?
@@swimdownx6365 Because they don’t need to. They already dominate their niches.
@@swimdownx6365 They'd need better circulatory systems first. Their simple bodies are a strength and weakness
@@swimdownx6365 ok
I like to imagine people domesticated all types of animals for work and transportation, then some horse people rode up and were like why are you riding a cow?
That would be funny! I mean, some humans rode elephants or camels, so it's not so far-fetched.
But nothing beats a horse as a mount, they are faster and probably more comfortable tham camels, and safer than elephants
I would find it incredibly helpful if you put a map up of how the continents were positioned in each of your episodes unless they are arranged as we expect today. Thank you. Love this channel.
Thank you for making these beautiful videos.
Maybe best content on-line today!
Horses, food or friends?
France: Why not both?
Well, in Europe and Asia they are still food
...and burger king
Some part of Canada too (Mainly French Canada).
Kazakhstan even has pizzas and burgers with horse meat.
But anyone in the world can just walk into Ikea and buy moose meat, and it's possible you get horse meat instead ^^
All branches of living organisms are fascinating but I find the paleontology of plants, birds and mammals particularly fascinating. Keep it up.
Horses are gorgeous, wonderful animals. Thanks for this video and the interesting information on them! And those cave paintings are marvelous!
This channel has made me pass my science SAT
What I find amazing is how horses were only just beginning to be breed 4000 year ago. By then, we were about half-way through the bronze age when horses were just beginning to be breed.
That "...What was i talking about?"
Absorbently charming and hilarious. 👍
I think people have always been fascinated by horses. They are powerful, fast, and graceful. They just feel like freedom.
I’d heard P-horses have evidence of having been through a process of genetic funnelling characteristic of species that have been domesticated. They don’t have the genetic diversity of a truly wild species and are technically feral, but have been so for many millennia.
It's interesting that they might have been partially or fully domesticated. Maybe the people who had modern horses waged war on the keepers of the Przewalski horses and wiped them out and there is only a small number of them left. It's also possible that the poor genetic diversity could just be because there are only a small number of them left and are fairly isolated so they might have suffered some significant inbreeding. It will be interesting to see what archeologists can dig up next about them :)
Depends. Cheetahs also have an extremely low genetic diversity, but are very much wild.
Surprisingly enough, humans too have a low genetic diversity. A hypothesis links this event to be the eruption of a supervolcano, Mt. Toba.
@@johnhoney5089 cheetahs were exactly what I was thinking about, too! Their genetic diversity is terrible because of population loss and inbreeding, not domestication.
Interesting fact about human genetic diversity - it's only low outside of Africa, probably because non-Subsaharan African people descended from only a few groups of people that ventured out of Africa. You'd find more genetic diversity if you sampled a few people across different regions of Africa than if you sampled non-African people from far-flung areas of the world, which is mind-boggling. That's why it is so important for people of African heritage to become bone marrow donors - it is much more difficult to find a match for people who have certain genes related to immunity in western countries because there are numerous genetic groups that simply didn't exist outside of Africa in significant quantities until very recently. It's much easier to find matches for the handful of groups that non-Africans possess than the dozens that are present in different African peoples and their descendants.
@@rhaufler You couldn't be more wrong. Subsaharan Africans are the racially most diverse people on earth. Some of the first humans ventured out of Africa but some stayed and mix up on site to this day. They mix up the longest and have a lot of diversity.
This was great. Now do other domesticated animals that were integrated early like this, such as dogs, goats, sheep, and cows
Incredible video. As always.
Hi from Italy. Great job! Would you please give a bibliography for this episode? Thanks and continue like this that's one of the best channels of the tube!
❤️ love your channel
I know that my Arabian horses can trace their lineage back to the Bedouins who keep impeccable records on ALL their horses. I cannot imagine living without horses. I love them all, and have spent my life with them, but for me, Arabians are absolutely special! Greetings to all from the Land of Enchantment...and horses! 🤠🐴🐎❤
I hope you don't mind coming to Kazakhstan to try a horse burger or a horse pizza
Most horses stem from a few arabians
@@Neversa i’d prefer my horses in a bottle of glue but I would be willing to try the burger.
@@Neversa No as a matter of fact, I do not eat my friends and family members--even the four-legged ones. I love my veggies. My diet is actually like my horses! My favorite is rice and noodles with vegetables, and veggie-patties with french fries! When travelling outside the USA, I have no trouble at all finding no meat food. Many thousands of years ago was one thing, but nowadays, there are plenty of other choices out there. My favorite pizza is just a little sauce, cheese, pineapple, and almonds. ""Hawaiian" Pizza LOL When I eat my pizza out by my horses, they all want some...and of course, they get a taste! 🍟🍕🥦🥡
@@LTWeezie You can feed a lion with veggies all his life, but the moment he tastes meat, goodbye diet.
Awesome Show , Thank You !!!
Wonderful video, thank you.
Something about this week’s video was just so beautiful. Maybe it’s horses themselves. Very touching
Only Fauci gets to say when the science changes . Everything's else is missinformation
Amazing episode as always but my slavic self cried each time I heard the pronounciation of Przewalski's 🤣
Could you tell us how it supposed to be pronounced? I remember trying to make sense of the word as a child: "Prez-walski? Purr-zah-walski? uh..." followed by me slurring letters together and hoping for the best 😂
I absolutely enjoyed this video!
I love this channel!
I've been wondering something. I've asked a few fellow biologist friends and have done some research, but haven't found much. Why is it that "flat," or horizontal tails are only possessed by marine mammals (and evolved twice!) but lateral fluked tails are much more common (marine reptiles multiple times and fish). Are there horizontal tailed fish? Is it regarding the spine function of reptiles vs mammals like I suspect? and what does this have to do with pinnipeds' one day maybe being not tied to the land? I look forward to a possible video answering my questions, thaaanks!
I saw something about it i don't remember when. It has to do with how quadrupede mammals run. If you see any mammal galloping, for example dogs or cheetas, they flex the spine up and down. So when mammals started to swim they just did the same for propelling. That's what seals or otters do as well, and also the thing we can do: we can swim mimicking the dolphing movement using our feet (with or without artificial fins) as proppelers, but we can not do the same side to side.
Horse tacos are the best.
What a lovely chapter!
*extremely* interesting! thanks pbs eons.
Well now I need to learn more about early human and horse history
Everyone talks about the dog being “man’s best friend,” but it is the horse that is man’s greatest companion. It is what elevated man from merely being hunter-gatherers into conquerors, explorers, and empire-builders.
I don't know, the Olmec, Maya and the Aztec probably would have differed with that. Remember, the Americas probably didn't have horses after about 10,000 years ago, when they went extinct after people ate them all. Admittedly there is some evidence that suggests some smaller isolated populations MAY have survived as late as Columbian contact, but they were never as widespread and central to civilization in the Americas as they were in the Old World. Dogs, on the other hand, were.
Why didn't insects evolve better breathing systems
Dogs have been with us longer and are actually more versatile. But if you want to play that game, I'll see your horse and raise you the elephant: bigger, stronger, much more intelligent, a fearsome component of empire-building in the ancient world, and still in occasional use as a draft animal.
@@swimdownx6365 its good enough.
@@christosvoskresye, the elephant is alright, but it’s not fast at breeding (18-22 months vs. 11-12 months for a horse), is highly territorial compared to horses, and requires a far larger amount of food to maintain than the horse.
Their size is about as much a hindrance as it is a benefit, since it makes it harder for them to negotiate tighter spaces and requires more space for them to live comfortably. There’s also the issue of them being even more easily spooked and temperamental than horses, which would often make them a liability in many situations.
The classical example would be how startled they were in combat situations. They could, and did, end up going out-of-control, especially when sufficiently spooked, and run back into their own, friendly lines; causing significant destruction to their allies in the process.
They were useful in the environments they existed within, but lacked the versatility of the horse and could easily be a detriment than they were a benefit.
Well, to be fair in many parts of the world they are still food. Here in Italy, for example, in some regions it is still very common to eat horse meat.
Thanks for the video.
I love dogs, but horses have always given me shivers since I was a small child. It might have something to do with my ancestry that includes Eurasian horse archers. Sometime I want to pick up a compound bow and ride a horse on the open steppes. Probably just some ancestral memories....
Horses are a staple food in nomadic steppe nations like in Kazakhstan. Very delicious at that.
There are a lot of places where horse meat is eaten from Japan and Indonesia to Italy and Iceland
Thanks for the information.
In Sweden it is still common to eat smoked and salted horse meat on sandwiches. You can find it in any convenience store here right next to the ham.
Horses, galloping in the countryside. I wish that I had one to ride.
Please make a video about the evolution of the brain. From the bundle of specialized nerves to the complexity of the human brain.
Probably would need to start with the nerve nets of cnidarians and primitive early bilaterian offshoots as the roles and functions of neurons and how they are organized in various animal groups get quite complex. Even nerve nets are surprisingly complex as I remember reading a paper discussing the roles of neurons in controlling tissue growth and differentiation within hydras. Plus there seems to be a general ancient association between neurons and immunology too which appears to become important when it comes to various neurological diseases in humans
Never thought about this. Great topic!
Please do an episode on pumas and how they nearly went extinct during the ice age, and re-expanded into old territory after