The Atlas wild ass (''Equus africanus atlanticus''), also known as Algerian wild ass, is a purported

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

subspecies of the

African wild ass The African wild ass (''Equus africanus'') or African wild donkey is a wild member of the horse family, Equidae. This species is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey (''Equus asinus''), which is sometimes placed within the same s ...

that was once found across

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and parts of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

.Kingdon, Jonathan (1997) ''The Kingdon field guide to African mammals''. Helm, London It was last represented in a villa mural ca. 300 AD in Bona,

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, and may have become extinct as a result of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

sport hunting Trophy hunting is a form of hunting for sport in which parts of the hunted wild animals are kept and displayed as trophies. The animal being targeted, known as the "game", is typically a mature male specimen from a popular species of collectable ...

Taxonomy

Purported bones have been found in a number of

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

s across Morocco and Algeria by

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

s including

Alfred Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

(1928, 1935) and

Camille Arambourg Camille Arambourg (February 3, 1885 – November 19, 1969) was a French vertebrate paleontologist. He conducted extensive field work in North Africa. In the 1950s, he argued against the prevailing model of Neanderthals as brutish and simian. Du ...

(1931). While the existence of numerous prehistoric

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

depictions, and Roman mosaics leave no doubt about the former existence of African wild asses in North Africa, it has been claimed that the original bones that were used to describe the subspecies ''atlanticus'' actually belonged to a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

. Therefore, the name ''E. a. atlanticus'' would be "unavailable" to the Atlas wild ass. It was also hypothesized that the appearance of Nubian and

Somali wild ass The Somali wild ass (''Equus africanus somaliensis'') is a subspecies of the African wild ass. It is found in Somalia, the Southern Red Sea region of Eritrea, and the Afar Region of Ethiopia. The legs of the Somali wild ass are striped, resemb ...

es were clinal and that they appeared different as an artifact of the recent extinction of intermediate-looking populations. This would make the living African wild ass a monotypic species with no subspecies, and at least question the existence of extinct subspecies like the Atlas wild ass. However, genetic studies have shown since that Nubian and Somali wild asses are different enough to warrant subspecies status. Additionally, domestic donkeys carry two different

haplotype A haplotype (haploid genotype) is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent. Many organisms contain genetic material (DNA) which is inherited from two parents. Normally these organisms have their DNA orga ...

s, one shared with the Nubian wild ass, and another of unknown origin that is not found in the Somali wild ass. The presence of the extinct Atlas wild ass in the

Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

makes it a plausible source for the second haplotype.Groves, C. (2013). Subgenus Asinus African Wild Ass in ''The Mammals of Africa'' Vol. V. (eds. Kingdon, J., Happold, DCD, Butynski, TM, Hoffmann, M., Happold, M. & Kalina, J.) 414–417.

Description

Ancient art consistently depicts the African wild asses of North Africa as similar to, but darker colored than, the Nubian and Somali wild ass subspecies. The general color was gray, with marked black and white stripes on the legs, and a black shoulder cross (sometimes doubled). In comparison, the Nubian wild ass is gray with shoulder cross but no stripes, and the Somali wild ass is sandy with black stripes, but no shoulder cross. One or both features appear occasionally in domestic donkeys. Wild and primitive domestic asses are indistinguishable from their bones, which complicates their identification in archaeological sites.

Range and ecology

The Atlas wild ass was found in the region around the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range, which stretches around through M ...

, across modern day Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. It might also have occurred in rocky areas of the Saharan Desert, but not in sands which are avoided by wild asses. However, the 20th century reports of wild asses from northern

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

and the Hoggar Massif in the central Sahara are doubtful.

References

*Harper, F. (1944.5). ''Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World'', QL707.H37, p. 352 *Ziswiler, V. (1967). ''Extinct and Vanishing Animals'', QL88.Z513, p. 113 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1294976 African wild ass Extinct mammals of Africa Holocene extinctions Species made extinct by human activities Controversial mammal taxa Mammals described in 1884