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| "Sure hope I get extinct soon!" |
Mesopotamian murals depict a horse-like mystery animal 500 years before the introduction of the domesticated horse to the Middle East. Known as the kunga, its exact identity was recently revealed by genetic research: it´s a hybrid between a Syrian wild ass and a domestic donkey.
The hybrids were probably sterile, making the kunga dependent on human-overseen cross-breeding for its very existence. When the horse was introduced, kungas fell out of favor and so disappeared. Today, the Syrian wild ass is extinct due to overhunting, so the kunga cannot be restored (at least not at the current level of genetic engineering).
But then, who the heck wants to be a kunga anyway, pulling the chariot of some Bronze Age Mideast king?
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