Context:

• All the world’s wild horses have gone extinct, according to a study that unexpectedly rewrites the horse family tree based on a new DNA analysis of their ancestry.

Facts for Prelims:

• What most people thought were the last remaining wild horses on Earth — known as Przewalski’s horses — were actually domesticated horses that escaped their owners.
• The study is based on archaeological work at two sites in northern Kazakhstan, called Botai and Krasnyi Yar, where scientists have found the earliest proof of horse domestication, going back more than 5,000 years.
• Przewalski’s horses are considered an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• The round-bellied, short legged, reddish brown to beige horses roamed Central Asia, Europe and China in prehistoric times.

Source:TH