donkeys

When we think about the animals that have been accompanying humans since time immemorial, helping us in agricultural and daily tasks, surely the first candidates are horses, dogs, and even cats. Probably the donkeys (Equus africanus asinus) are a little further down the list. Until now we believed that the domestication of the donkey was an event that was repeated in different places and times in prehistory. However, the largest genetic study of these animals carried out to date revealed a different story: that of a single domestication of the donkey, which occurred about 7,000 years ago in the area around the Horn of Africa and what is now Kenya. The closest relatives of the domestic donkey, wild donkeys (Equus africanus) still live today in this African region. The common donkey is sometimes seen as a subspecies of these African donkeys or as an independent species closely related to it (in which case its “scientific” name would be Equus asinus). According to the team, led by French researchers, the donkey was domesticated in this context, and then began to spread throughout the rest of Eurasia, already as a domestic animal about 4,500 years ago, that is, about 2 and a half millennia after being domesticated. The genetic study has not only pointed out the unique origin of this species, but It has also “advanced” the date of domestication by about four centuries. The domestication of the donkey would have made sense in its spatiotemporal context. About 7,000 years ago the Sahara environment witnessed an aridification process that led the desert to expand. The donkeys they had an advantage Compared to other equids, they are more resistant to lack of water, which could have made them ideal for use as an aid in transportation or agricultural work. For their analysis, the international team of researchers analyzed samples of 207 modern donkeys from 31 countries, as well as remains of skeletons of 31 other donkeys who lived in the last 4,500 years. They also used genetic information from other equids to expand the study. The work of the researchers was published in the journal Science. The variety and the mules The study also offers us some curious stories about this animal. For example, genetic analysis of Roman-era remains found in France tells the story of a generation of giant donkeys (up to 25 centimeters larger than the average modern donkey). The Romans They didn’t raise these donkeys colossal for their direct use, but because mules (crosses between male donkeys and horse mares) were of great use to them. The Romans took advantage of an animal that combined part of the robustness of donkeys with the ability to travel long distances more typical of horses. After the fall of the Roman Empire, mules once again gave way to donkeys since economies had become more local, so it was not necessary to use them to transport large loads along the popular Roman road network. The donkey is perhaps the most maligned of domestic animals. Despite having played a key role in human development over the past four millennia, the donkey is often seen as synonymous with stupidity or clumsiness. Such is the point that the donkey has become a threatened species in places like Spain or Mexico. For better or worse, the donkey continues to form part of our cultural heritagefrom the donkey with which Sancho Panza accompanied Don Quixote to that of Friar Perico. Now, thanks to science, we know a little more about the history of what could be the least popular cousin of the equine family. In Xataka | The Iberian lynx is reconquering Spain and that is good news. The challenge now is to understand why In Xataka | Science had always believed that only humans understand geometry. Until we noticed the crows again Image | Ansgar Scheffold