Ancient horse’s DNA fills in picture of equine evolution

A 700,000-year-old fossil proves astoundingly well preserved

Przewalski's horses (one shown in Mongolia) are the last truly wild species of horse, a new study of ancient DNA suggests.

Claudia Feh, Association Pour le Cheval de Przewalski

A frozen fossil of a horse has yielded the oldest genome sequence ever compiled. Clocking in at about 700,000 years old, the horse DNA is nearly 10 times older than the previous record holder, the genome of an 80,000-year-old Denisovan, an extinct evolutionary cousin of Neandertals and modern people.