Why do horse hooves have only one finger?

The ancestors of horses are average sized dogs, they have 3 or 4 toes on hooves. However, after a long time of evolution, horse clogs today only have 1 finger.

For many years, the question of why and how the horseshoe developed as it is always a controversial topic among many scientists.

A recent study has demonstrated that when the size of the horse becomes larger, their toes are dissipated to one finger.

Again with the evolution of horse hooves, scientists first studied 13 Hyracotherium horsetail fossils, about the size of dogs about 50 million years ago. They then took these figures against the characteristics of modern horses.

As the size of the horse grows, a big toe will be more useful than the small clogs - (Photo: NUESTEP).

They analyze information such as the length of bones and areas of the body using 3D scanning techniques. Thereby, they can know the ability of the bone to withstand such effects as compression or bending.

Next, the team estimated the body weight of each horse and calculated how much pressure each leg had, then deduced the effects of these indicators with the ability to trot or jump ability of them.

In the study, the scientists explained that as body size increased, the ancestors' middle toes became larger and more stable with good pressure. In contrast, the fingers on the side begin to shrink and eventually dissipate.

This may be one of the reasons that horses run very fast and solid. Since ancient times, humankind has paid attention to this feature and used horses as a popular means of transportation.

Scientists have recorded this result on the Proceedings of the Royal Society B - a science journal on biology.

Today, the family of horses includes common species such as horses, zebras, donkeys, forest donkeys, mules, etc.

According to the team, although the horses today only have a single clog, but if you look closely, you can detect traces of the toes dissipated on their hooves.