Graduate student, Stephanie Killingsworth, visited not one but two museums to photograph hundreds of fossilized molar teeth of horses in May 2024. Her goal is to build image datasets of different key horse species being studied as part of her research to understand the origin of Equus.
The trip started with a week-long visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACM) where she photographed the upper and lower molars of Dinohippus mexicanus. The LACM houses one of the largest Dinohippus mexicanus collections from the type locality (the location where this species was first identified) Yepómera in Chihuahua, Mexico. A total of 263 individual teeth were photographed in both their lateral (side) and occlusal (chewing surface) views.
Next, Killingsworth traveled to Canyon, Texas for a visit to the Panhandle Plains Historic Museum (PPHM). There, she photographed 66 molars of an earlier relative of Dinohippus mexicanus known as Dinohippus interpolatus at its type locality, Coffee Ranch in Texas. Images were also taken from two additional Texas localities, Axtel Ranch and Cita Canyon, that have populations of Dinohippus mexicanus as well as Equus simplicidens, a more advanced species. Among the two sites, an additional 151 teeth were photographed. Comparative analysis will help to inform Killingsworth about the differences in tooth patterns and morphology between the species as well as differences in wear stages within species.
Each of the museums granted a loan of 10-20 horse molars from their collections to bring back to the University of Florida and Florida Museum of Natural History to CT scan and compare to the related specimens in our own collections. This trip was made possible through the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Wilder Foundation Travel Award.
Stephanie Killingsworth is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Geological Sciences, advised by Dr. Bruce Macfadden, Founding Director of the Thompson Earth Systems Institute and Distinguished Professor here at the Florida Museum.
The 2024 Summer Student Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History, including funds from the Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship and the B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment. If you would like to help support this fund for future student awards, please go to:
Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship
B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment