National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2 |
of the enamel of the Anau horse stands midway between the Siberian horse of Tscherski and the diluvial horses of Rutimeyer, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the subfossil horses now before me from Hostomitz, Auvernier, Schuettarschen, and Königsfelden, which have a much simpler enamel plication than animals of the modern heavy Occidental races of exactly equal age.
THE SKULL AND ITS PROPORTIONS.
In beginning the study of a horse's skull one asks instinctively : was the skull large or small ? Indeed the length of the skull gives a very good rule for determining the withers-height, and thereby also a provisional classification of the horse. It is accepted that heavy horses have the largest heads, and that light Oriental horses and ponies have the smallest skulls. I shall not speak here of the methods of taking the measurements, and will only refer for these to the rule drawn up by me in association with Professor Kraemer at the request of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zuechtungskunde, which will soon appear.
Since it is possible to calculate with approximate accuracy the length of the skull from any of its measures of length (the longest measure possible being preferable), I have calculated this for all the incomplete subfossil skulls before me, from the proportions obtained from 5o skulls that the molar row stands to the basilar length as Io : 28, and to the anterior length as Io : 31.
Length of skulls (in millimeters).
It follows from this comparison that the Anau horse had a skull of about the same size as Equus przewalskii and that the other Bohemian subfossil horses, like the Alemannic horse of Königsfelden, stand very near the Anau horse and Przewalski horse in size of skull. In contrast, it appears that the horse of the bronze age from Auvernier has a very notably smaller skull, but still smaller is that of the subfossil horse of Gera and Spandau mentioned by Nehring. And smallest of all is the skull of the neolithic horse from a turbary of the Somme in France, being smaller than that of the smallest Exmoor pony in the Berlin collection ;
THE HORSE OF ANAU IN ITS VARIOUS RELATIONS.
Length on base.
481 543
472 528
487 543
49'0 536
476 527
476 520
438 492
436 485
416
390 4224
396 427
389 449
376 431
Clydesdale horse, after Nehring. 574
Horse from Boulogne, coll.
Duerst 543
Diluvial horse from Nussdorf,
after Woldrich 555
Diluvial horse from Remagen,
after Nehring. 528
Schuettarschen, horse of the
iron time (Hallstatt) 5o6
Arabian horse, after Nehring 500
Thoroughbred British race
horse, coll. Duerst ... 496
Anau horse, calculated, 5 years
old 492
Equtcs przewalskii, after Salenski:
No. 5213 485
No. 5216 495
No. 5214 484
623 Equus przewalskii, after Salenski:
No. 5218
618 No. 5212
Neolithic horse, Kutterschitz .
Alemannic horse, Königsfelden..
La Tène horse, Hostomitz
562 Arabian horse, from Abassii,
after Nehring
56o Indian horse, after Nehring
540 Auvernier, bronze time horse .
Subfossil horse from Gera, after
J38 Nehring
Exmoor pony, 15 years, after
545 Nehring
Neolithic horse, turbary, Somme
542 (France)
547 Ass from Abadieh
538 Ass from Aden, British Museum
Length
Length of
on base. anterior
face.
Length
of
anterior
face.
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