Janet West, age 9, of St. Catharines, Ont.

Why are the prehistoric horses so small

The story of life always begins with small creatures. The first creatures were tiny one‑celled animals, too small for our eyes to see. After countless generation  some of these single cells joined together to live in colonies, The living creatures were getting bigger and through ages of time they got bigger and still bigger.

Five hundred million years ago, the biggest animals were crabby little creatures called trilobites. They teemed in the ancient seas for there were no living things on the dry land. Two hundred million years later, crusty little scorpions were exploring life on land and there were sizable fishes in the seas. In the long story of life on earth, things moved very, very slowly. Two hundred million years ago, squat salamanders left the sea for life on land and in fifty million years their children were giants several feet long.

Little reptiles also had crept out of the seas and now it was their turn to grow big. In time, their children became the giant dinosaurs that ruled the world for more than 100 million years. These monsters were in their heyday about 60 million years ago. Then a new kind of animal arrived on the scene. It was a mammal, a warm‑blooded, fur‑coated animal who gave birth to live babies and for the first time fed them on mother s milk.

The first mammal was a mousy little creature. But it was able to survive when all the big dinosaurs perished. Its children were very successful. They multiplied and spread all over the world. They changed somewhat and some of them grew much bigger than their mammal ancestors. About fifty million years ago, there were several different mammals in North America. Some ate grass some nibbled from the low branches and some ate meat.

The ancestor' of our noble horse was, of course, a grass‑.eater. Fifty million years ago, he was no bigger than a Jackrabbit. He had soft teeth and soft toes on his little feet; But even then we could have recognized the arched back and flowing mane of our graceful horse.

Times changed and the little horse had to cope with new problems. The soft grasses on w1dich he fed became crisp and coarse. Only those horses with strong teeth could feed and survive. The horse was now hunted by swift prowlers and pouncers. Only the swift could escape. Through the ages the horses with weak teeth and those who were slow perished before they had time to‑grow and have children of their own. The bigger horse­ could run faster than the small ones and soon only the larger horses were left.

With each generation, the horses became bigger and bigger. As they grazed, they stood on tiptoe, ready for a quick takeoff to escape their hungry enemies. For generations they stood on one toe of each foot and soon the unused toes almost disappeared. Ten million years ago, the children of the first horses had size and speed. to cope with their enemies. It took the family forty million years to grow from their soft, bunny‑­sized ancestors into the great and noble horse of modern times.