Horses and rhinoceroses have a common ancestor based on fossils discovered in India.

These fossilized bones of a creature called "Cambaytherium thewissi" recently unearthed by paleontologists, dates back to 54.5 million years ago during a time when the subcontinent of Asia was an island.

Like Us on Facebook

The 200 bone fossils and teeth were uncovered in an open pit coalmine just northeast of Mumbai. A team from Johns Hopkins University has been conducting excavations at the site every two years since 2001. These digs are being funded by the National Geographic Society.

Little is known about Cambaytherium, which is apparently the closest ancestral link to the Perissodactyla, an animal group that is the ancestor of modern horses, rhinos and tapirs.

Animals under Perissodactyla can be described as "odd-toed ungulates," which means their hind feet have an uneven number of toes. They also possess a distinct digestive tract.

Many features of Cambaytherium such as the sacral vertebrae and the animal's hand and feet bones are classified between the Perissodactyla and other primitive animals, according to Ken Rose, a professor of evolution and functional anatomy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Cambaytherium is actually a cousin to all living horses, rhinos and tapirs. The fossil provides evolutionary evidence of the ancestry of modern horses and rhinos.

Cambaytherium also suggests several groups of mammals from that period originated from the Indian subcontinent when this was still an island and hadn't yet merged with Asia.

This theory was first conceived by researchers from Stony Brook University, New York in 1990. Rose suggests during that early period when Cambaytherium thrived, India was still an island that also had primates and a rodent similar to other species in Europe during this time.

A possible theory about this is a land bridge allowed these animals to migrate from the Arabian Peninsula.

This study is detailed in the journal, Nature Communications.

Tagsrhinos, horses, ancient ancestor horse rhino india, ancient ancestor fossil rhino horse india