"For several decades scientists puzzled over the origin of
domesticated horses. Based on archaeological evidence, it had long been
thought that horse domestication originated in the western part of the
Eurasian Steppe (Ukraine, southwest Russia and west Kazakhstan);
however, a single origin in a geographically restricted area appeared at
odds with the large number of female lineages in the domestic horse
gene pool, commonly thought to reflect multiple domestication "events"
across a wide geographic area.
In order to solve the perplexing history of the domestic horse,
scientists from the University of Cambridge used a genetic database of
more than 300 horses sampled from across the Eurasian Steppe to run a
number of different modelling scenarios.
Their research shows that the extinct wild ancestor of domestic horses, Equus ferus, expanded out of East Asia approximately 160,000 years ago. They were also able to demonstrate that Equus ferus
was domesticated in the western Eurasian Steppe, and that herds were
repeatedly restocked with wild horses as they spread across Eurasia."
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