A new fossil DNA study shows that horses originated in North America millions of years ago and reached Europe through China.
The study analyzed fossil DNA from the Dalian horse, once dismissed as a local oddity in northeastern China.
Results indicate the Dalian horse carried distinctive American ancestry and passed it to ancient horse populations in Siberia.
Those bloodlines later gave rise to modern European horses.
The research was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, drawing on samples from Heilongjiang Province.