Biology:European ass
| European ass Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene-Early Holocene
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | Equidae |
| Genus: | Equus |
| Subgenus: | Asinus |
| Species: | E. hydruntinus
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| Binomial name | |
| Equus hydruntinus Regalia, 1907
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The European ass (Equus hydruntinus) is an extinct equine from the middle and late Pleistocene of Eurasia. It appeared first in the fossil report 300,000 years before present and did not disappear until Holocene times. In the late Pleistocene it was widespread throughout much of western Eurasia from the Middle East to Europe, especially along the Mediterranean, with fossil reports from Sicily, Turkey, Spain , France and Portugal. In the east the range apparently stretched at least to the Volga and to Iran. In the north it reached almost to the North Sea in Germany. It is possible that the Iberian "cebro", extinct in the wild from the 16th century, could correspond to the Equus hydruntinus, although the word "cebro" comes from Latin equiferus meaning 'wild horse'.[1] Morphologically the European ass can be distinguished from asses and hemiones particularly by its molars and the relatively short nares. The exact systematic position is still not fully clear, but genetic and morphological analysis suggest that it is closely related to the Asiatic wild ass.[2][3]
Etymology
The specific epithet, hydruntinus, means from Otranto (Hydruntum in Latin).
References
- ↑ Nores, Carlos; Morales Muñiz, Arturo; Llorente Rodríguez, Laura (June 2015). "The Iberian zebro: what kind of a beast was it?". Anthropozoologica 50 (1): 21-23. doi:10.5252/az2015n1a2.
- ↑ Burke, Ariane; Eisenmann, Vera; Ambler, Graeme K. (May 2003). "The systematic position of Equus hydruntinus, an extinct species of Pleistocene equid". Quaternary Research 59 (3): 459-469. doi:10.1016/S0033-5894(03)00059-0.
- ↑ Orlando, Ludovic; Machkour, Maryam; Burke, Ariane (July 2006). "Geographic distribution of an extinct equid (Equus hydruntinus: Mammalia, Equidae) revealed by morphological and genetical analyses of fossils". Molecular Ecology 15 (8): 2083-2093. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02922.x.
See also
- List of extinct animals of Europe
Wikidata ☰ Q631645 entry
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