karlshuker.blogspot.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a00:1450:400e:80f::2001  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

Home ▼

Home MY BOOKS - COMPLETE CLICKABLE LIST ▼



MY BOOKS - FULL DETAILS FOR EACH BOOK

Home MYSTERY CATS OF THE WORLD EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS WORLDWIDE ▼





FRIDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2013


HORNED HORSES AND HORSES WITH HORNS – DECIDEDLY DIFFERENT FROM HEAD TO TOE(S)


Photograph from c.1870 depicting a very spectacular horned horse



Horned horses and horses with horns – they may sound anomalous (and indeed they
are!), but such creatures are certainly one and the same thing, surely? Not at
all – in fact, it is true in every sense to say that they are different from
head to toe(s) !!




HORSES WITH HORNS


During the 19th Century, eminent French zoologist Baron Georges Cuvier loftily
denounced that most mystical and magical of legendary beasts, the unicorn, as a
zoological impossibility - claiming that a single median horn could never arise
and develop from the paired frontal (brow) bones of a mammal's skull. Since
Cuvier's damning pronouncement, the unicorn has received short shrift from
science. Yet this attitude may be both unjust and unjustified.


The classical unicorn of equine form (Edward Topsell)


To begin with: in 1934, Maine University biologist Dr William Franklin Dove
successfully, and spectacularly, refuted Cuvier's claim concerning the growth of
a single median horn from the frontal bones - by creating a bovine unicorn. He
achieved this remarkable feat by removing the embryonic horn buds from a day-old
Ayrshire bull calf, trimming their edges flat, then transplanting them side by
side onto the centre of the calf's brow. Growing in close contact with one
another, the transplanted buds yielded a massive single horn, which proved so
successful a weapon that its owner soon became the undisputed leader of an
entire herd of cattle. Yet despite his dominance, this unicorn bull was a very
placid beast, thus resembling the legendary unicorn not only morphologically but
also behaviourally. Just a coincidence?


Dr Dove's remarkable bovine unicorn (Dr William Franklin Dove)


Some researchers have since speculated that perhaps ancient people knew of this
simple technique, and had created single-horned herd leaders, whose imposing
appearance and noble temperament thereafter became incorporated into the
evolving unicorn legend.


Thus, the development of a single median horn is not an impossibility after all
- at least not in cattle, that is. Horses, however, must surely be a very
different matter, bearing in mind that they do not even grow paired horns (let
alone median ones) - or do they?


In fact, records of horses with horns, though rare, are by no means unknown. In
1929, for instance, German zoologists P.P. Winogradow and A.L. Frolow published
a short account within the journal Anatomische Anzeiger concerning a horse that
had exhibited lateral horn development on its brow, accompanied by a photograph
of the horse's skull.


Moreover, in an American Museum Novitates paper of 17 August 1934, S. Harmsted
Chubb documented several horses each exhibiting a small pair of lateral
skin-ensheathed frontal protuberances just above the eyes. In the photos of some
such horses contained in Chubb's paper, however, these 'horns' can be seen to be
tightly pressed against the side of the horse's skull, not projecting outward,
away from the skull.


A work horse from Sheffield exhibiting a small pair of frontal protuberances,
from Chubb's paper


Far more intriguing, conversely, is the following excerpt, from South American
explorer Felix de Azara's Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the
River La Plata (1837):


I have heard for a fact, that, a short time ago, a horse was born in Santa Fé de
la Vera Cruz, which had two horns like a bull, four inches long, sharp and
erect, growing close to the ears; and that another from Chili was brought to Don
John Augustin Videla, a native of Buenos Ayres [sic], with strong horns, three
inches high. This horse, they tell me, was remarkably gentle; but, when
offended, he attacked like a bull. Videla sent the horse to some of his
relatives in Mendoza, who gave it to an inhabitant of Cordova in Tucuman, who
intended, as it was a stallion, to endeavour to form a race of horned horses. I
am not aware of the results, which may probably have been favorable.


Thus, if horses can occasionally develop paired frontal horns and a median horn
can be induced to grow from the frontal bones of cattle, then surely in this
unrivalled age of biological modification, where sophisticated techniques
yielding cloned, transgenic, and other man-made life forms are already
commonplace, it would not be difficult to conduct a slightly modified version of
Dove's experiments - using equine-derived horn (or horn-substitute) tissue, and
a foal, instead of a calf, as the recipient?


Engineering a genuine equine unicorn would make a fascinating project for any
zoological team capable of ignoring the sound of Cuvier turning loudly in his
grave. After all, it isn't every day that science is granted the opportunity to
create a living legend.


But if that is what constitutes a horse with horns, what, then, is a horned
horse? I'm glad you asked!




HORNED HORSES


One of the most frequently reported and familiar of teratological conditions
exhibited by humans is the possession of extra fingers and/or toes -
polydactyly. However, this genetically-induced phenomenon has also been widely
recorded among many domestic animals (e.g. dogs, cats, horses, pigs, chickens,
pet rats and mice, guineapigs), as well as from wild species as diverse as bats,
salamanders, leopards, llamas, and even the Malaysian flying lemur. Moreover, it
can take several different forms, each under the control of a different mutant
allele (gene form).


Representative sequence of evolutionary decrease in equine toe number (Mcy
jerry/Wikipedia)


Probably the most famous non-human examples of extra-toed mammals can be found
among the records of polydactylous horses. One of the classic examples of
evolution is the gradual disappearance over millions of years of all but one of
the horse's functional toes. The horse lineage began with the Eocene epoch's
'dawn horse' Hyracotherium (formerly called Eohippus), with four functional toes
on each forefoot; leading on to Mesohippus of the Oligocene epoch, with three
toes; to Merychippus of the Miocene, in which the two lateral toes were greatly
reduced in size so that they no longer touched the ground; and to Pliohippus of
the Pliocene, whose two lateral toes were merely insignificant splints whereas
its central toe was massively enlarged, with its single hoof (modified toenail)
bearing the animal's entire body weight. This same condition is present in
normal specimens of all modern-day horses too, belonging to the genus Equus. (It
should be noted, however, that this is not a direct, straight-line evolutionary
series, one genus leading directly to the next, even though it is commonly if
erroneously presented as such, because several other genera of horses also
appeared and disappeared during equine evolution, exhibiting varying numbers of
toes.)


Nevertheless, the teratological literature contains numerous well-documented
cases of abnormal modern-day horses (notably of the Shire horse breed) that
possess one or more well-developed lateral toes, often bearing their own hooves
and sometimes even touching the ground alongside the normal, massive central
toe's hoof - as if determined to reverse the course of their own evolution! The
spontaneous occurrence in an individual of a trait like this that constitutes an
evolutionary throwback is known as atavism.


One such horse was an extraordinary 19th-Century specimen from Texas, which
possessed a pair of well-developed lateral toes on each hind foot, curving
downwards on either side of the central one like horns - as a result of which
this specimen became known as the horned horse. In contrast, only one such toe,
positioned on the central toe's inner side, was present on each forefoot. It was
from this specimen that other polydactylous horses also became known as horned
horses, a term used in particular with specimens exhibited in sideshows,
carnivals, circuses, etc.


Line drawing of the original horned horse, from Texas


These very distinctive-looking horses have a long history, and include among
their number a renowned steed of Julius Caesar. According to Suetonius in de
Vita Caesaria (vol. LXVI):


[Caesar] used to ride a remarkable horse, which had feet that were almost human,
the hoofs being cleft like toes. It was born in his own stables, and as the
soothsayers declared that it showed the owner would be lord of the world, he
reared it with great care, and was the first to mount it; it would allow no
other rider.


This account and many others were included within a major paper on the subject
by Prof. Othniel C. Marsh, published during April 1892 in the American Journal
of Science. As Marsh noted, the extent of polydactyly exhibited by horses varies
greatly. Some such specimens merely exhibit a small extra toe (often barely
visible externally) on the inner side of one or both forefeet. In more notable
cases, two such toes, one on each side of the normal central toe, may be
present, plus one or a comparable pair on one or both hind feet (although these
latter are usually smaller than their counterparts on the forefeet). In much
rarer cases, however, these various supernumerary toes may be much more highly
developed, to the extent that the affected feet compare favourably with the
normal feet of the Miocene horse Merychippus, and even occasionally with the
Oligocene's Mesohippus. Most dramatic of all are the extremely rare examples
that not only mirror the Mesohippus condition but also possess a tiny fourth
toe, representing the ancestral pollex (thumb) or hallux (big toe).


Line drawing of Clique


The most celebrated example of this last-mentioned and very extreme equine
polydactylous state is the so-called 'six-footed' horse owned by Theodore F.
Wood of New Jersey and named Clique, who was exhibited at shows for many years
in the U.S.A. and elsewhere. Clique died at an advanced age in January 1891,
whereupon his owner presented his body to Prof. Marsh for the Yale Museum. Marsh
observed that whereas his hind feet were basically normal, each of Clique's
forefeet sported a well-developed toe on the central toe's inner side. For much
of its length, this extra toe was separate from the central toe, bore its own
long hoof, and actually made contact with the ground, so that each forefoot
appeared double. This explained Clique's 'six-footed' appellation, because on
first sight he seemed to possess two hind feet and four forefeet. In addition,
close observations revealed that another supernumerary toe was represented by a
splint-like structure on the outer side of the central toe on each of Clique's
forefeet, whereas just under the skin in the locality of the ancestral pollex a
similar splint could be felt that corresponded to a fourth toe!


Even more remarkable than Clique, however, though less famous, was a so-called
'eight-footed' Cuban horse depicted in Marsh's paper and reproduced below here
in the present ShukerNature post, which gained its name from the fact that all
four of its feet each bore a well-developed second toe on the inner side of the
normal central toe, one again bearing its own hoof and making contact with the
ground alongside the latter.


Line drawing of the 'eight-footed' Cuban horse examined by Prof. Othniel C.
Marsh


This horse, a male, was on exhibition in New Orleans during spring 1878, and it
was Dr Sanford E. Chaillé from that city who drew Prof. Marsh's attention to it.
The horse was subsequently brought to the North, and a few days later was
displayed at New Haven, Connecticut, where Marsh closely examined it.


As with the occasional reappearance of dew-claws on the hind feet of dogs,
polydactyly in horses involves the redevelopment of toes normally absent in
modern-day species but present in ancestral ones (rather than simply involving
the duplication of existing toes, as occurring, for example, in polydactylous
humans and cats). A plausible explanation for this type of polydactyly is that
during the evolution of the horse, the genes responsible for the formation of
all toes other than the central one became increasingly repressed by other
genes, whereas those responsible for the central toe actually intensified their
activity, so that eventually the latter was the only toe that was 'permitted' to
form. Applying this theory to modern-day polydactylous horses, it could be
argued that during their embryonic development something goes wrong with the
repression mechanism acting upon the genes responsible for the formation of
those ancestral toes, so that it fails to operate, with the result that these
ostensibly 'lost' toes reappear - conjured forth as if by magic from their
prehistoric past.


Painting of the supposed eight-footed horse owned by Mark Sittich von Hohenems,
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (© Curious Expeditions/Flickr)


According to a very beautiful colour painting portraying it (above), a bona fide
eight-footed horse (i.e. one that possessed two entirely separate feet on each
leg, not just supernumerary toes) was owned by Mark Sittich von Hohenems,
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (1574-1619), who was renowed for his collection of
rare and unusual animals. The horse had been obtained in Arabia, each of its
alleged eight feet possessed its own horseshoe in the painting, and the painting
itself is on public display at the Palace Helbrunn (now a museum), situated
between Salzburg and Untersberg, Austria. Whether or not the horse was truly
eight-footed, however, or whether the painting is merely a very imaginative
depiction of a horned horse comparable to the Cuban specimen documented earlier
here, is unknown.


Whenever talking about eight-footed horses, one cannot help but be tempted to
think of Norse mythology and Odin's famous eight-footed steed, Sleipnir – but
there was one fundamental difference between Sleipnir and the horned horses
documented here. Not only did Sleipnir have eight fully-formed feet (not just
extra toes that looked a little like extra feet), he also had eight legs!


Odin riding Sleipnir (W.G. Collingwood)


One last comment, just to add a further level of confusion to horses with horns
and horned horses: sometimes, again most especially in sideshows, circuses, and
suchlike, 'horned horse' is a term that has been applied to a gnu or wildebeest
– this large African antelope (which actually constitutes two very
closely-related species) does look superficially equine but possesses a pair of
very noticeable horns.


A white-tailed (aka black) gnu Connochaetes gnou, one of two antelopine 'horned
horses' (public domain)









Dr Karl Shuker at 02:07
Share

3 COMMENTS:

 1. alanborky26 October 2013 at 18:03
    
    "Photograph from c.1870 depicting a very spectacular horned horse"
    
    There's me thinkin' it was Lady Gaga wearin' four pairs of platty boots at
    the same time [if my daughter sees this she'll kill me]!
    
    I was go'n'o crack a terrible joke about the impossibility of geldings
    gettin' the horn but in the end I decided that'd be eunuch corn...
    
    Haha!
    
    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    Reply
    
    
 2. jehanbosch11 December 2015 at 22:55
    
    In an old guide to the Natural History Museum in London was mention of two
    skulls of horses with horns. It was commented on as odd because no fossil
    horses had horns. But maybe the skulls were destroyed during the Blitz..
    
    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    Reply
    
    
 3. Ethan Gardener8 November 2018 at 21:47
    
    Fame is a strange thing, perhaps especially in the Internet era. I was
    surprised to see polydactyly described as "most famously in horses," when
    I'd never heard of it in horses before. ;) Just a quirk of information
    transmission, I guess.
    
    I don't quite understand the modern love for unicorns. I recall it first
    described to me as a creature untameable except by a maiden, which suggests
    a symbolic origin I'm not too sure I want to know too much about, LOL!
    Perhaps it is one of the nicer ancient legends on that sort of topic.
    
    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    Reply
    
    

Add comment

Load more...








‹
›
Home
View web version







CONTRIBUTORS

 * CryptoBiker
 * Dr Karl Shuker
 * Unknown


Powered by Blogger.



Diese Website verwendet Cookies von Google, um Dienste anzubieten und Zugriffe
zu analysieren. Deine IP-Adresse und dein User-Agent werden zusammen mit
Messwerten zur Leistung und Sicherheit für Google freigegeben. So können
Nutzungsstatistiken generiert, Missbrauchsfälle erkannt und behoben und die
Qualität des Dienstes gewährleistet werden.Weitere InformationenOk