Stanley, Steven M., "Macroevolution and the Fossil Record," Evolution, vol. 36 (May 1982),
pp. 460-473.
p. 464
"Those who in the past have contemplated the formation of
the modern horse
by gradual evolution, beginning with this early genus, must now contend with the
fact that at least two species of Hyracotherium lasted
for several million
years without appreciable change."
p. 464
"It is notable that the evidence of great stability for
species of Hyracotherium
is complemented, at the other end of equid phylogeny, by data showing that ten
species of horses lived through most or all of Pleistocene time—for at least
the
better part of 2 Myr."
Kruzhilin, Yu, and V. Ovcharov, "A Horse from the Dinosaur Epoch?" Moskovskaya Pravda ("Moscow Truth"), trans. A. James Melnick (February 5, 1984).
"Soviet paleontologists have discovered the fossilized tracks of an unknown species of perissodactyls (odd-toed animals) in the spurs of the Gissar Mountains in southern Uzbekistan near the village of Baysun…. An analysis of the rocks, which were taken to Tashkent, indicated that their age was about 90 million years old!
"The paleontologists on the expedition immediately thought of comparing the 86 horseshoe-shaped tracks with equine imprints of hoofs. In any case, one could talk about animals very much resembling the horse.
"A TASS correspondent turned to the famous Soviet paleontologist, Academician B. Sokolov, Secretary of the Department of Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, for an answer to this question…. the scientist said, ‘ … there is not the slightest doubt concerning the accuracy of the determination of the geologic age of the "Baysun tracks." They are of the Creataceous period…. The tracks of any reptiles similar to these tracks are unknown to science at the present time. It is difficult to place them with confidence with any known group of mammals—the horse which they are now compared with, indisputably, appeared much later. Most likely, we are talking about the discovery of some whole new group of mammals.’"
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