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Feral Chincoteague ponies stroll along Assateague Island National Seashore
Feral Chincoteague ponies stroll along Assateague Island National Seashore off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. Researchers speculate that this feral horse breed shares history with Spanish conquistadors – reasoned by a recent archaeological discovery.
Researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History unearthed a piece of a horse’s tooth dating back to Caribbean colonization from an archaeological site in northern Haiti. The site, known as Puerto Real, was once a bustling port town, an outpost under Spanish rule until it was abandoned in the mid-16th century. The discovery could shed light on the exploration patterns of Spanish colonists and a link between their horses and the feral horses on the island of Assateague.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant BCS 1930628.]
Learn more in the NSF Research News story Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck theory. (Date of image: unknown; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Feb. 3, 2023)
Credit: National Park Service
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