Horse – Equus caballus

Equus caballusLinnaeus, 1758

Accepted name, Mammal Species of the World 2005

Reviewed by Bennett and Hoffman (1999, Mammalian Species, 628). Recent caballine horses have been assigned to two different species, E. caballus (or ferus) and E. przewalskii, but many authors now include przewalskii in caballus; see Corbet (1978c:194), Groves (1974a), Bennett (1980), and Bennett and Hoffman (1999). Gromov and Baranova (1981:333-334) continued to recognize two species, gmelini (= ferus) and przewalskii. Groves (1971b) and Corbet (1978c:194) proposed that ferus (the Tarpan) replace caballus, objecting to the use of specific names based on domestic animals. Gentry et al. (1996) proposed that majority usage be confirmed by adoption of the first available specific name based on a wild population for the wild taxon, in this case deemed to be E. ferus. It has not been demonstrated that most authors have termed wild horses E. ferus rather than E. caballus or ... [truncated]

• Wilson, D and Reeder, D. (eds.) 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. -- 2142 pp. Johns Hopkins University Press.