Yakut horses did not develop any technology to survive.
Yakotland in northern Siberia is one of the coldest regions on our planet, but the horses living here were able to adapt relatively quickly in terms of evolution, and today not only do they survive the frosts, but the size of the population is also increasing, writes IFLScience.
In order to adapt to extreme sub-zero temperatures – temperatures in Siberia can reach nearly minus 70 degrees Celsius in winter – they have evolved the ability to reduce their metabolic rate and, in parallel, their body temperature. Most animals that develop this ability are usually inactive during this period, however, Yakut horses perform their duties unchanged.
According to the researchers, the Yakut horses are not descendants of the local horses that inhabited the region until the mid-Holocene era, and they were certainly not introduced until after the migration of the Yakut people a few centuries ago. The adaptation that occurred during this time can be considered very rapid from an evolutionary point of view.
The researchers also found evidence of convergent evolution between Yakut horses, indigenous people, and woolly mammoths. This means that species adapt to their environment in a similar way, suggesting that only a few evolutionary strategies could be the answer to survival in extremely cold environments.
