Equidae is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses and zebras, many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus Equus. Equidae belongs to the order Perissodactyla, which includes the extant tapirs and rhinoceros, several extinct families; the term equid refers to any member including any equine. The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae date from the early Eocene, 54 million years ago, they used to be assigned to the genus Hyracotherium, but the type species of that genus now is regarded to be not a member of this family. The other species have been split off into different genera; these early equids were fox-sized animals with three toes on the hind feet, four on the front feet. They were herbivorous browsers on soft plants, adapted for running; the complexity of their brains suggest that they were alert and intelligent animals. Species reduced the number of toes, developed teeth more suited for grinding up grasses and other tough plant food.

The equids, like other perissodactyls, are hindgut fermenters. They have evolved specialized teeth that cut and shear tough plant matter to accommodate their fibrous diet, their inefficient digestion strategy is a result of their size at the time of its evolution, as they would have had to be large mammals to be supported on such a strategy. The family became diverse during the Miocene, with many new species appearing. By this time, equids were more horse-like, having developed the typical body shape of the modern animals. Many of these species bore the main weight of their bodies on their central, toe, with the others becoming reduced, touching the ground, if at all; the sole surviving genus, had evolved by the early Pleistocene, spread through the world. Order Perissodactyla † indicates extinct taxa. Family Equidae Genus †Haringtonhippus Genus †Epihippus Genus †Haplohippus Genus †Heptaconodon Genus †Eohippus Genus †Minippus Genus †Orohippus Genus †Pliolophus Genus †Protorohippus Genus †Sifrhippus Genus †Xenicohippus Genus †Eurohippus Genus †Propalaeotherium Subfamily †Anchitheriinae Genus †Anchitherium Genus †Archaeohippus Genus †Desmatippus Genus †Hypohippus Genus †Kalobatippus Genus †Megahippus Genus †Mesohippus Genus †Miohippus Genus †Parahippus Genus †Sinohippus Subfamily Equinae Genus †Merychippus Genus †Scaphohippus Genus †Acritohippus Tribe †Hipparionini Genus †Eurygnathohippus Genus †Hipparion Genus †Hippotherium Genus †Nannippus Genus †Neohipparion Genus †Proboscidipparion Genus †Pseudhipparion Tribe Equini Subtribe Protohippina Genus †Calippus Genus †Protohippus Genus †Astrohippus Genus †Dinohippus Genus Equus Genus †Hippidion Genus †Onohippidium Genus †Pliohippus Genus †Heteropliohippus Genus †Parapliohippus

Liu Guodao, is a Chinese agrobiologist. Liu is a researcher and doctoral supervisor on tropical forage, specializing on the collection, identification and breeding of tropical forage grass genetic resources. Based in Haikou, Hainan, a tropical province of China, Liu is a vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, after having served as the head of two affiliated research institutes of the CATAS, the Tropical Crop Germplasm Research Institute and the Tropical Agricultural & Animal Husbandry Institute. Liu has presided over 15 research programs, obtained 27 provincial and ministerial level awards in China and bred 24 species. Among the papers and books Liu published, he's the author of an encyclopedia on tropical grasses in China "Grasses of Hainan" which includes 98 genus, 242 species and 1723 photos of grasses into over 700 pages, an achievement of more than 20 years of researches. On behalf of the CATAS, Liu is in charge of international cooperation, technical service and training for farmers in developing countries.

In an interview published by a Chinese state-run newspaper China Daily in August 2018, Liu said "the CATAS has established long-term cooperation and exchange programs with more than 43 African countries, helping build demonstration centers of agricultural science and technology and training more than 2,300 local talent". Liu obtained his doctorate from the South China University of Tropical Agriculture, he was a visiting scholar at International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia

The University of Alabama in Huntsville is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master's, doctoral degrees, comprises nine colleges: arts, humanities & social sciences; the university's enrollment is 9,700. UAH is one of three members of the University of Alabama System, which includes the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. All three institutions operate independently, with only the president of each university reporting to the Board of Trustees of the system; the genesis for a publicly funded institution of higher education in Huntsville was years in the making. Beginning in January 1950 as an extension of the University of Alabama and known as the University of Alabama Huntsville Center, classes were first taught at West Huntsville High School. However, the university's direction changed in 1961, when Wernher von Braun, a German rocket scientist brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip after working for the Nazi regime, helped create a research institute to provide advanced engineering and science curricula to NASA scientists and engineers.

UAH's first undergraduate degrees were awarded in May 1968 as part of the spring commencement ceremony at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. One year the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted to make UAH an independent and autonomous campus. Dr. Benjamin Graves, a 1942 graduate of the University of Mississippi and president of Millsaps College in Jackson, was tapped as UAH's first president in 1970, he returned to faculty status in 1979 and retired in 1989. The first degree awarded for work completed on the UAH campus was awarded to Julian Palmore in 1964. Mr. Palmore was at the time a United States Navy ensign assigned to NASA's Research Projects Division; the first official on-campus graduation ceremony at UAH was in June 1970. The first woman to earn a Ph. D. from UAH was Virginia Kobler in 1979, in Industrial Engineering. UAH's second president, Dr. John Wright, former Vice Chancellor of the West Virginia University, served from 1979 to 1988. UAH's third president was Dr. Louis Padulo, former Stanford professor and dean of engineering of Boston University.

Huntsville leader Joseph Moquin took over the UAH presidency on an interim basis in 1990. Dr. Frank Franz, provost at West Virginia University, was chosen as UAH's fourth president, his wife, Dr. Judy Franz, was granted full professorship in the physics faculty, her renown in the scientific community was reaffirmed when she was named executive officer of the American Physical Society in 1994. At the beginning of the 2006–2007 academic year, Dr. Franz announced his plan to step down as president after that year. On July 1, 2007, Dr. David B. Williams a professor of materials science and engineering and the vice provost for research at Lehigh University, began serving as UAH's fifth president, he left in 2011 to join Ohio State University as dean of engineering. The university gained national attention in February 2010 when a professor killed three people and wounded three others during a faculty meeting. Dr. Robert Altenkirch was hired as the university's sixth president in September 2011. Dr. Altenkirch served as president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology for nine years before joining UAH.

In 2019, Dr. Darren Dawson, former dean of the College of Engineering at Kansas State University, became UAH's seventh president. UAH offers 89 degree-granting programs, including 44 bachelor's degree programs, 30 master's degree programs, 15 PhD programs through its nine colleges: arts, humanities & social sciences. Nursing is UAH's largest single major. There is an Honors College that offers an enriched academic and community experience for undergraduates in all disciplines. Not given Huntsville's technology-based economy, UAH is known for engineering and science programs, including astrophysics, atmospheric science, aerospace engineering and digital animation; the first "commercial" non-rocketry programs in the U. S. were managed by UAH scientists, the first "high-temperature" superconductor was discovered at UAH, the first U. S. experiment flown aboard the Soviet Mir Space Station was from UAH. UAH is a Space Grant university and has a history of cooperation with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.

S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal. In conjunction with helping NASA reach its goals, UAH makes NASA's research and technology available to all of Alabama's colleges and universities; the National Space Science and Technology Center is one of 17 high-tech research centers on UAH 505-acre campus. The UAH Propulsion Research Center promotes interdisciplinary research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students; the PRC was founded by Dr. Clark W. Hawk in 1991 and has since provided support for NASA, the U. S. Department of Defense, the U. S. Department of Energy. Research topics include electric propulsion. Research in nanotechnology and microfabrication is conducted by Micro Devices Center. Atmospheric Sciences and related research areas are headquartered in the SWIRLL buildings. At least nine