Equus scotti (translated from Latin as Scott's horse, named after vertebrate paleontologist William Berryman Scott) is an extinct species of horse native to Pleistocene North America.

Evolution

Equus scotti is a true caballine horse that is more closely related to modern horses than to zebras and asses. Equus scotti may be synonymous with Equus lambei, another generally smaller horse known from the Pleistocene of North America, but this is uncertain. Although it has been suggested that Equus scotti may be synonymous with living Equus ferus , North American horses diverged from their Eurasian counterparts around 800,000 years ago, following the first dispersal of horses out of North America, with some interbreeding after the initial split. The earliest remains of the species are known from the late Blancan during the Early Pleistocene. The youngest remains of the species date to the Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) around 12,000 years ago.

Distribution

Paleontological excavations have identified the locations of numerous places where E. scotti occurred. The species was named from Rock Creek, Texas, United States, where multiple skeletons were recovered. A closely related fossil find was made of Equus bautistensis in California; this species appeared closely related, but of a slightly more primitive form than E. scotti. However, E. bautistensis was redefined as a junior synonym of E. scotti in 1998 by paleontologist E. Scott, who also assigned fossils from the Anza-Borrego Desert in California, tentatively interpreted to represent E. bautistensis, to E. scotti. The distribution of the species includes: "Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Yukon (Canada) and in California, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas (United States)".