As the man changed the way of running horses

Ever wonder how the horses became so crucial to human civilization? In reality, it was the human species that provoked this importance, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Animal Genetics.

According to the Dodo, the researcher Lars Andersson and his team found that a gene â€" known as "keeper of the March" â€" is responsible for controlling the horse riding, which includes various types of locomotion, including gait, trot and gallop. After the discovery of the gene, the researchers found that some breeds of horse had a kind of additional floor â€" idling â€" which gives a smooth movement that is desirable for humans.

"This type of floor is smooth because the horse always keeps one foot on the floor and never has high when gallops or troteia," says Andersson. "When the horse performs movements in that he is not in contact with the ground, the rider needs more experience the ride because they need to follow the horse in vertical movement," he adds.

This mutation, which allows the horse this type of locomotion more comfortable for human, affects the way in which neurons are configured in the spinal cord of the horses. On the other hand, horses that have this mutation contract members differently from horses that do not have the mutation. "Think as humans move. If you are walking you can observe how your arms moves in harmony with the movement of the legs, because the spinal cord indicates the way to move around in order to have a balanced floor. The same thing happens with the horses and lets them moving with different passed ", indicates the scientist.

Andersson and his team studied a sample of four thousand horses scattered throughout the world and concluded that most of the animals had the genetic mutation that gave them the ride smoother. The investigator suspects that such is due to the positive selection of the humans of this dash over the centuries, once fixed in the usefulness of a smoother locomotion, both for transport as for military use.

In this way, humans prompted reproduction of horses with this mutation, which was passing from generation to generation. "We found this genetic trait in horses in Japan, where the Samurai preferred a shift smoother due to the heavy armor that wore. Humans spread the mutation through Asia and then across Europe and later the discoverers brought the mutation to the North and Latin America, "reveals Andersson.

If You Enjoyed This, Take 5 Seconds To Share It

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• StumbleUpon
• Digg
• Delicious
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Technorati