Across The Fence: Discovery of the three-toed horse in Nebraska

Throughout the world, there is likely no single animal more honored and admired than the horse. The most ancient of Asian civilizations revered the horse for its strength, courage and intelligence.

In North America, it was thought that the horse had been introduced by Spanish explorers and that before that time there were no horses on the continent. In the mid-19th Century, the man who knew more about horses than any other was Professor Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale University.

When Thomas Huxley, one of Darwin's strongest supporters, viewed Marsh's display of equus fossils, that showed the ev...