What literature suggests that? According to
the palaeontological sources I have consulted, _E. sivalensis_ and _E.
namadicus_ are usually taken to represent one evolving chronospecies, with
the latter regarded as a _younger_ synonym of the former. The Siwalik horse
descends from a pretty archaic lineage -- horses that migrated from North
America in the late Pliocene. Within the genus _Equus_ these early Indian equids
are rather distant relatives of "true horses" (_E. ferus_, the ancestor of
domestic horses, left America some 2.5 million years later than horses ancestral
to _E. sivalensis/namadicus_). I agree that the picture we get from fossils is
inherently incomplete, but I wouldn't define the present state of things as
quicksand. The _known_ fossil equids of the subcontinent are either hemiones of
a species that was contemporaneous with _Homo erectus_ and died out long
before the end of the Pleistocene.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 2:33 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Dravidian in Persia?
VA: While Equus Namadicus died out several 10's of thousand
years ago, it might be possible that the Siwalik horse survived upto 10000BP as
some literature suggests. Anyway, this area is quicksand and there is NO
comprehensive study on the horse varieties for S Asia.