Re: history questions: meat, siberian land bridge, horses in the Americas

jimamy@primenet.com
21 Dec 1996 08:39:03 -0700

nipponwb@nash.mindspring.com (Nippon-Nashville Web Site) wrote:

>What counter-theories are there to the land bridge and Spanish
>introduction of horses? I was not aware of any. If Leaky(sp?) et al.
>are right about modern man emerging from his simian(sp?) ancestors in
>Africa, the "native Americans" had to come from some other continent
>somehow. I believe there are indications that prehistoric horses
>(little bitty ones) existed in the Americas but died out. What's
>going down, theory-wise?
>
>JCR

It is my understanding that full size horses lived in North America prior
to reintroduction by the Spanish. When I say full size, I mean just as
big or bigger than a normal modern horse that has not been selectively
bred for large size by man. These horses did die out before the Spanish
arrived and reintroduced the horse. I have never heard of any evidence
that man in North America ever hunted these original horses and I am have
not seen any evidence that man was responsable for their extinction. Is
there any such evidence that man ever hunted these horses? When did they
go extinct?