All horses in the world had common ancestors

Chromosomes won't fool

An international group of scientists decided to find out where modern horses came from, so they called genetics as assistants. After analyzing the Y-chromosome of 52 horses, which belong to 21 modern breeds, scientists found that the ancestors of almost all modern breeds, except the North European, were eastern horses. And most of all, the breeding variety was affected by artificial breeding, which people around the world have been doing for the last 700 years.

In the photo: arabian horse

According to the laws of genetics, if males come from a common forefather, they will have the same set of Y-chromosomal mutations. Comparing the number of such common ancestors of modern horses with their ancient counterparts, scientists came to the conclusion that the diversity of current animals is less great: in most modern European breeds, only six different Y-chromosome sets were found.

Descendants of the Arabian horses

This similarity in genetic history has allowed scientists to find the breed from which all modern horses went. It can be divided into two subtypes: the first is the Arabian horses from the Arabian Peninsula, and the second are Turkmen horses, which are similar to modern Akhal-Teke horses.

In the photo: Akhal-Teke

Apparently, before the variety of breeds from different ancestors in Europe was much greater. But the oriental horses were so good that they began to breed them specifically, including for horse racing. Arab and Turkmen horses are the ancestors of the main modern race breeds. Including native English thoroughbred racehorse! And those breeds that could not withstand competition with them gradually died out over these 700 years.