Why Horses Can’t Wear Flip Flops Sources

Digit reduction is a major trend that characterizes horse evolution, but its causes and consequences have rarely been quantitatively tested. Using beam analysis on fossilized centre metapodials, we tested how locomotor bone stresses changed with digit reduction and increasing body size across the horse lineage…

The ancient ancestors of horses had four toes on their front feet and three on their back – but modern horses have just one. A new study could explain why