Scientists have just revealed the oldest example of a hybrid animal created by humans: a donkey-ass. Remains of several horse-like animals show that the creature lived 4,500 years ago, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia.
According to the researchers’ analysis using DNA sequencing, the bones belonged to animals that were the result of a cross between a domestic donkey and a wild ass, which is also known as kunga.
The bones of 25 kungas were found in 2006, buried in the Umm el-Marra tomb, located in northern Syria. Scientists’ first impression was that they were horses, but the different proportions puzzled archaeologists. Furthermore, horses only arrived in the region about 500 years later.
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What were?
Archaeologists discovered that they were kungas by sequencing the DNA of a bone from an animal found in Turkey, comparing it with teeth and fur from the last Syrian wild asses of the 19th century. domestic ass, and as a paternal lineage the Syrian wild ass.
Eva-Maria Geigl, co-author of the study, explains that the local population developed a strategy to cross two different species, combining the most desirable characteristics of each of the species.
Geigl also says that it was not an easy task, and that hybrid animals are, in general, sterile, which may have justified their disappearance. According to ancient Mesopotamian texts, the larger animals were used to pull vehicles, while the smaller ones served in agriculture.
