Extensive new research reveals that horses roamed freely between North America and Eurasia until Pleistocene climate change placed the intersection of land under water.
According to the survey Sustainability insights from late Pleistocene climate change and horse migration patterns Published this month Sciencewild horses moved themselves across Beringia, more commonly known as the Beringland Bridge. This intersection connected North America from Yukon and Alaska to Siberia, Asia.
The First Nations people introduced the land that intersects the Medicine Man Trail, which has been in use for thousands of years. “We understand that horses are keystone species that bring balance to the ecosystem, along with other life forms that share relationships,” Prime Minister Harold left Lakota scientists, knowledge numbers and leaders, Heron, leader of Lakotanation. say Phys.org. “In this study, multiple scientific systems are respectfully combined to provide important knowledge that each of us can apply today in each community around the world to sustain all life.”
Towards the end of the Ice Age, as Earth’s water was trapped in the glacier, the sea level began to drop. The land below the Bering Strait (formerly known as Beringia) has become a flat grassy, treeless plain that connects Asia with North America. (Image of National Park Service)
A team of 57 researchers from around the world participated in the groundbreaking study, which includes 18 Indigenous scientists. During the study, both Indigenous and Western scientific methods were used, such as genomics and isotopic profiling. These Late Pleistocene horses from Alaska and Yukon are judged to be parents of Eurasian animals, and we are certain that the horse known as the “last glacial spacing” repeatedly crossed the Beringland Bridge. Samples were taken from fossilized bones discovered in ice on both continents.
“DNA is in top condition in cold environments,” says Dr. Ludovic Orlando and Dr. Ludovic Orlando, director of the Genomics Centre at Toulouse, a joint interdisciplinary research center supported by the National Center for Science and Science in France, France and France, and Dr. Ludovic Orlando, director of the Genomics Centre at Toulouse, a joint interdisciplinary research center supported by the National Center for Science and Science in France, France and France. Tell Phys.org. “This study leveraged the full power of the latest generation of DNA sequencing instruments and Lakota’s scientific genomic principles to reveal a more fully diverse horse lineage that existed in these regions during the late Pleistocene.”
Over 15 years, scientists sequenced genomes from 68 Late Pleistocene horses, focusing on horse migration across the continent from 26,000 to 19,000 years ago. This study revealed three separate horse strains.
“Our work shows that in North America alone there was one distinct horse lineage south of the ice sheet, with another horse lineage in Alaska and Yukon, with a third at the westernmost end of Alaska.” Phys.org. Running Horse Kolin is the director of Takskanskanskanwasakalyapi: Global Institute for Traditional Science (Gift), and she led the research of the Genome Sequence Institute for Research, ensuring that all Indigenous scientific protocols were applied and tracked.
The third horse lineage above is the population of the Ural Mountains, spreading throughout the Arctic Circle, lowering sea levels, forming the Beringland Bridge, and is a group of horses that were swept over and over to the United States from Eurasia 50,000-19,000 years ago.
Of particular interest to researchers was the revelation that migration was not a one-way trip. Rather, evidence showed that horses traveled in opposite directions, following coastal routes along the Pacific Ocean, where they departed west and westwards across Anatolia and the Iberian Peninsula, leading to the present geological era that began more than 11,000 years ago.
The study authors point out that takeaways from their research are the importance of maintaining ecological corridors that support continuous movement between habitats. These corridors are essential to protecting and conserving biodiversity during the current global climate crisis.
“We did this research with other countries’ allies to show the world the importance of movement in sustaining life in the world,” says Joe American Horse, a traditional leader and knowledge keeper of Lacotanation. “This concept means that life does not move on its own, but follows its ecosystem. Life must move to survive. We are implementing the findings of this paper in conjunction with our sacred black hills, many major scientific institutions. Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. ”
