Pleistocene Horse Foot from the North Sea Ice Age Relic - Equus caballus - Horse - Pleistocene - Height: 365 mm - Width: 120 mm- 1124 g - (1)

A subfossil bone specimen attributed to Equus caballus, the horse, from the seabed of the North Sea and datable to the Pleistocene, with an estimated age of about 50,000 years. It is a distal portion of a limb, commonly described as a horse hoof, preserved with an anatomically readable structure. The specimen shows an elongated and streamlined shape, with the articular and terminal part of the limb still recognizable. During the Ice Age, wild horses were widespread across the cold, vast steppes of Eurasia. They lived in herds and shared the Pleistocene landscape with woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, steppe bison, reindeer, giant deer, and large predators. The find originates from the North Sea, an area now submerged but which during glacial phases was partly emergent land. This ancient region, known as Doggerland, connected Great Britain to mainland Europe and consisted of cold plains, waterways, steppes, and wetlands. With the end of the last glaciation and the rise in sea level, these lands were submerged, preserving numerous remains of Pleistocene fauna in the sediments. The surface bears a dark natural patina, with black, brown, gray, and light ochre shades, due to long permanence in marine sediments, in the muds and sands of the North Sea. The bone is not completely petrified like rock, but presents as a subfossil bone, preserved and impregnated over time by minerals and natural elements. Mounted on a wooden base with a metal support, the specimen is suitable for display in a paleontological collection, in a natural history gallery, in a private study, or in a modern cabinet of curiosities. An authentic fragment of the European Ice Age, belonging to one of the most representative animals of the great Pleistocene steppes. Technical data Species: Equus caballus Common name: Horse Period: Pleistocene Indicative age: about 50,000 years Provenance: North Sea, Europe Paleogeographic area: Doggerland Typology: distal portion of limb / hoof Conservation: subfossil bone Assembly: wooden base with metal support Category: paleontological specimen / natural history collection item