Why is a horse larger than a donkey?
HORSE
DONKEY
Serious? I mean really are you serious? While they are the same genus they are not the same breed. Or the donkeys do not eat their vegies. which ever one you want. Like a Great Dane is larger than a chihuahua(which is not really a dog but, an annoying rat like barking thingy) Breed a great dane bitch with a mexican hairless chihuahua dog I’ll bet that would be wierd and uglyy.
smaller animals require less food and its easier for them to be agile.
horses have evolved for food-rich flat plains and glades.
donkeys have evolved for food-scarce hilly or mountainous scrub land.
Is it just me or do the animals look the same size?
A typical horse is way up there at about 500 kilos, large breeds reach 900 kilos; a big, big donkey might just get to 500 kilos, but about 200 is the norm.
This question came to me in a vision around 1999 and has disturbed me for many years. Are you sure this is a question of evolutionary biology, what sort of answer is being asked for? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
In the pictures they look to be the same size…
I edited the photos so they would be about the same size and we could have a good comparative look at the two beasts. I guarantee you, in the origional JPEGs, the horse was way bigger than the donkey, like double the size, even though the donkey picture was even a tad larger to start with.
No offence, but if we’re to try and answer the question fairly I think that tampering with the evidence will only produce distractions…
No offense taken. I wasn’t tampering with the evidence, I promise.
Here are some links to sites and pictures of horses and donkeys for the perusal of forum members:
ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/
horse-country.com/
7art-screensavers.com/screenshot … -horse.jpg
thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/site/1/home.html
lovelongears.com/
imh.org/imh/bw/donkey.html
I have chosen these links at random from the first ten results from a basic search on Google for “horse” and “donkey” respectivly. No attempt has been made to influence forum member’s perception of the nature of horses or of donkeys.
Here’s a thought:
What is the difference between a mule and a donkey? And between a deer and a Moose? Or between a Mouse and a rat?
Is it just me, or should we be looking for answers from the world of science rather than the world of philosophy?
I mean, If you ascribe to creationism, then the answer is simple: God created the donkey to be smaller than the horse.
If you ascribe to the Evolution theory, then your answer is found in the processes of natural selection and evolution of both animals.
just my two cents anyways 
NO, this question has a place in both philosophy and science.
The field of philosophy covers this topic extensivly. One can find the basics of these ideas covered in the works of Plato and Aristotle. The Chinese “School of Names” (or Ming Jia 479-221 B.C.) debated these ideas exclusivly and came to some pretty advanced ideas.
Modern linguistics has been interested in this topic as well, in fact you’ve already touched on its basic idea. Ferdinand de Saussure states that the most important relation between signifiers in a system is the idea of difference. One signifier has meaning within a system, not because it’s connected to a particular signified, but because it is not any of the other signifiers in the system.
[size=84]NOTE: I realize that many linguists would argue that their work is science, but (in my opinion) it’s still too young and abstract to be a true science. It’s more of a specialized type of philosophy. LIKE LOGIC![/size]