It’s game day and we’re preparing for Super Bowl 50 the best way we know how, by taking a look at the natural history behind the teams’ mascots, panthers and broncos:
A bronco is a wild or untamed horse. The famous mustangs of the American West, like many other “wild” populations, are actually considered feral, descended from escaped domesticated horses. In the popular rodeo sport known as bronc riding, horse and human battle each other. The “bucking bronco” tries to throw the rider off, even as the rider fights for control. Bronc riding is based on a method for breaking horses where a cowboy rides by force until the horse is tamed.
Tell me more about horses.
The horse evolved 55 million years ago. A close, early relative of the horse is Hyracotherium, also known as an eohippus. The size of a large fox, Hyracotherium stood 10 inches high at its shoulders and had four toes on its front feet and three on its back. The only surviving branch of the horse family is the genus Equus, which includes zebras, asses, and donkeys along with the horse. All horse breeds, from slim thoroughbred racehorses to stocky plow horses to tiny ponies, belong to a single species, Equus caballus.
Horses are good at sports, right?
Horses are magnificent athletes. Most horses, no matter what breed, can trot for many hours without resting. A fit quarter horse can sprint a quarter-mile (402 meters) in less than 21 seconds, and a talented thoroughbred can jump a fence more than seven feet (2.1 meters) tall.
Yes! This is a specimen of Equus occidentalis, or Western horse, that lived during the Late Pleistocene, about 40-12 thousand years ago. This fossil horse skull was retrieved from the La Brea tar pits, in Los Angeles, California.
Learn more about horses and get to know panthers ahead of the big game!
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