The provided illustrations describe the evolutionary progression of the horse spanning a period of 40 million years, with focus on the alternations in its limb structure.
Overall, it is clear that horses have increased sharply in terms of size and muzzle while also decreasing the number of toes and finally evolving into a single hoof.
To begin with, horses start their evolution as the Eohippus. Their body is small, similar to the size of a dog while also having relatively small legs with 4 front toes and a single back digit. Over the course of 10 million years, Eohippus evolves into Mesohippus with various essential changes, they become significantly bigger in size and show a reduction to three toes with the middle one becoming more prominent.
Moreover, after approximately 15 million years, Merychippus is the descendant of Mesohippus, they increase more in size while also developing a mane. Regarding the number of toes remaining the same, the middle toe becomes even more essential and larger. In addition, the other toes of Merychippus got smaller and cannot touch the ground anymore. Fast forward to modern days, horses are the final evolution of the species for now. They grow even more massive regarding size while looking relatively hefty. As for its leg, all of the toes fuse together to become a hoof.
