Join us for the first of a four-part series brought to you by the Commons Library and 150 Years of Princeton Paleontology. In this first event, you'll learn about discoveries by Princeton's paleontological crews on the evolution of the horse and see real fossil skulls and skeletons of horse ancestors, from cat-sized early forms to recent Ice Age species.

The early, formative decades of North American vertebrate paleontology were almost entirely dedicated to the study of fossil mammals. Giant, horned brontotheres ("thunder beasts") and strange, elusive saber-toothed cats captured the imaginations of scientists and the public alike, but perhaps the most important mammalian fossils gathered by early fossil hunters belonged to a group of animals already well-known to them and to us today: horses. The horse fossil record stands as one of the single greatest pieces of evidence for evolution by natural selection, and evolutionary thinking was shaped as rapidly as these fossils could be unearthed. Princeton paleontological crews collected numerous fossil horses, along the entire evolutionary trajectory of this magnificent group, and played a central role in elevating this modern prairie staple to a scientific superstar.

Join us for future events:

October 7: Expeditions to Patagonia

November 4: The Other 2/3 of the Tree of Life: Invertebrate and Plant Fossils 

December 2: The Cretaceous World of Egg Mountain

Image credit: Jack Wilson

150 Years of Princeton Paleontology brings real fossils from the University’s Geosciences collection, alongside the publications describing them, to tell the story of the scientific lineage that founded modern vertebrate paleontology.