Ancient horses’ spotted history reflected in cave art

Jennifer Carpenter, BBC News, 07-11-2011

Scientists have found evidence that leopard-spotted horses roamed Europe 25,000 years ago alongside humans. Until now, studies had only recovered the DNA of black and brown coloured coats from fossil specimens. New genetic evidence suggests “dappled” horses depicted in European cave art were inspired by real life, and are less symbolic than previously thought.The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Horses, which were the most abundant large mammal roaming Eurasia 25,000 years ago, were a key component of early European diets. So it is not surprising that the cave art of this time had a certain equestrian flair – horses make up 30% of the animals depicted in European cave paintings from this era.

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