Today I came across (always looking for more information on the subject) a book which mentions the possible existence of native American horses.
I had already posted on this subject:
- pre-Hispanic horses and their resemblance to donkeys.
- possible survival of supposedly extinct megafaunal horses.
- "Onagers" (wild ass) in Southern Patagonia
As you must surely know, according to the currently accepted natural history of horses, they originated in America, but became extinct here until they were reintroduced by Europeans during the discovery and conquest period (1500s). I am bewildered by the possibility that they may have survived in the southern tip of South America.
A book published by Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (1847-1927) was a British naturalist and professor at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In a book published in 1910, he wrote the following:
It is also said that the Araucanian Indians of Patagonia have a peculiar breed of ponies, which may be derived in part from a native South American stock. I have never been able to procure a skull of this breed[1]
Unfortunatley, Lankaster does not mention his sources! So I must keep on digging through books till I find them.
Bibliography.
[1] Lankester, Edwin Ray, Sir. (1922). Science from an easy chair. Methuen. pp. 89.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
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