Habitat preferentiel et connectivité des chevaux tardiglaciaires d’Europe occidentale (Equus caballus arcelini, Guadelli 1991)

Abstract

This paper investigates environmental data deductible from the third (ungueal) phalanges of equids. Following V. Eisenmann's conventional morphometric studies, it has become possible to identify the soil types travelled by the horses from the shape of their third phalanges, as these are related to the hooves' shape. By comparison with a contemporaneous or sub contemporaneous wild equid morphometric data, Late Glacial horses had proportionally larger third phalanges. We can, in fact, infer that the Late Glacial horses had much larger hooves than any wild equid of today. We interpret these morphometric characteristics as an adaptation by E. caballus arcelini to the loose soils in the bottom of valleys. The productive habitats of these biotopes of the Late Glacial landscape seem to have been attractive for E. caballus arcelini, that chose them as their home range. These conclusions, along with the fragmentation of Late Glacial horse populations, enable us to put forward an hypothesis explaining the trend toward size reduction in E. caballus arcelini's populations at the end of the Pleistocene.