Anachronisms in The Book of Mormon - Flora and Fauna Anachronisms - Horses

Horses

Horses are mentioned fourteen times in the Book of Mormon, and are portrayed as an integral part of the cultures described. There is no evidence that horses existed on the American continent during the 2500–3000 year history of the Book of Mormon (2500 BC–400 AD). Horses evolved in North America, but are believed to have become extinct on the American continent at the end of the Pleistocene. Horses did not reappear in the Americas until the Spaniards brought them from Europe. They were brought to the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus in 1493, and to the American continent by Cortés in 1519.

Apologists assert that there is fossil evidence that some New World horses may have survived the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, though these findings are disputed by critics.

Others believe that the word "horse" in the Book of Mormon does not refer to members of the genus Equus.

Mormon FARMS apologist Robert R. Bennett stated that as a comparison, the famed horses of the Huns did not leave an archeological trace yet numbered in the thousands. Bennett also points out the limited evidence of lions in Palestine:

"The biblical narrative mentions lions, yet it was not until very recently that the only other evidence for lions in Palestine was pictographic or literary. Before the announcement in a 1988 publication of two bone samples, there was no archaeological evidence to confirm the existence of lions in that region."

Critics argue that this rebuttal is not applicable since pictographic and literary evidence of horses in the New World (outside of the Book of Mormon) is unknown.