Oldest horse brains: more advanced than previously realized.
Previous interpretations of early horse brains were based on an incorrectly identified fossil endocast, now believed to be from a condylarth. Newly prepared endocasts of Hyracotherium, the oldest horse and one of the earliest perissodactyls, reveal a relatively larger brain, with a more expanded neocortex, than existed in the condylarth ancestors of perissodactyls. Fifty million years ago, horse brains had suprasylvian, ectolateral, and lateral sulci, but the frontal lobe was undeveloped.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005580:Fossils; D006666:History of Medicine; D006736:Horses / Q000033:anatomy & histology*