African origins of modern asses as seen from paleontology and DNA: what about the Atlas wild ass?

As a contribution to the still open debate on the multiple african origins of the domesticated donkey, this work focuses on the wild ass of the Maghreb. It follows the recent paleontological review of the equids from Lac Karar, a middle Pleistocene site in Northern Algeria, where most of the faunal remains were attributed to wild asses (Equus africanus Heuglin and Fitzinger, 1866). The morphometric resemblance between the equid of Lac Karar, and Equus melkiensis Bagtach, Hadjouis and Eisenmann, 1984 which might correspond to the equid commonly referred to, as the Atlas wild ass (vernacular name) and, by descent, to Equus tabeti Arambourg, 1970, the only subspecies of ass from the early Pleistocene in Northern Africa, highlights the need for extensive biomolecular and radiometric studies on this wild and robust ass, endemic to the Maghreb. This is especially important given that progress in extracting ancient DNA from equids has been demonstrated by several recent studies and that remains of wild asses are still being uncovered in many late Pleistocene to Holocene (Neolithic) deposits in the Maghreb. The results from such studies could substantially improve the knowledge on the origin of asses. In particular, these analyses could shed light on the, as yet, undetermined clade 2 which may originate from the wild ass of the Maghreb as recently hypothesized by several authors. The archaeological and genetic data reviewed in this paper focuses on the ancient range of the Atlas wild ass mainly from sites in the northern part of the Maghreb; it contributes to current debates regarding this subspecies as one of the possible ancestors of modern asses. In addition, the paper identifies directions for further genetic researches on the extant donkey of the Maghreb. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.