Showing posts with label splint bone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label splint bone. Show all posts

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Hidden Anatomy: Researchers Make a Case that Modern Horses Have Five Toes--Even If We Can't See Them


One of the keys to the Solounias research is the leafy construction of the Eponychium hoof covering in the fetal horse. The researchers dissected fetal hooves and paid close attention to the construction of the Eponychium. From left: Medial view of fetal horse hoof;  Dorsal view of the fetal hoof, showing a smooth singular surface, representing the dominant digit III; Ventral view of a fetal horse specimen, showing four distinct infoldings that depict evidence of the Solounias paper's proposed digits I, II, IV and V.  (Detail from one of the many figures in the article.)


Scientists have long wondered how the horse evolved from an ancestor with five toes to the animal we know today. While it is largely believed that horses simply evolved with fewer digits, researchers at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) pose a new theory suggesting that the remnants of all five toes are still present in the distal limb of the horse.