when did the horse first come to north america
Horses in the United States The horse evolved in the Americas, but became extinct between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago. When the Spanish arrived on the American mainland in the 16th century, they brought horses with them and re-established the animals on the continent.
Horses in the United States Fossils of the earliest direct ancestor to the modern horse, Eohippus have been found in the Eocene layers of North American strata, mainly in the Wind River basin in Wyoming.[4] Fossils found at the Hagerman Fossil Beds in Idaho, called the Hagerman horse or Equus simplicidens are from the Pliocene, dating to about 3.5 million years ago (mya). Paleontologists determined the fossils represented the oldest remains of the genus Equus.[5] The genus Equus, which includes all extant equines, was plentiful in North America and spread into the Old World by about 2.5 mya.[6]