The Atlas Wild Ass also known as Algerian Wild Ass is an extinct animal. It was last shown in a villa mural in AD 300

300

Year 300 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius...

 in Bona

Annaba

Annaba is a city in the northeastern corner of Algeria near the river Seybouse. It is located in Annaba Province. With a population of 257,359 , it is the fourth largest city in Algeria. It is a leading industrial centre in eastern Algeria....

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, and went extinct after Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 sport hunting.

Taxonomy

Fossils have been found in a number of rock shelter

Rock shelter

A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff....

s across Morroco and Algeria by paleontologists including Alfred Romer

Alfred Romer

Alfred Sherwood Romer was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution.-Biography:...

 (1928, 1935) and Camille Arambourg

Camille Arambourg

Camille Arambourg was a French vertebrate paleontologist. He conducted extensive field work in North Africa. In the 1950s he argued against the prevailing model of Neandertals as brutish and simian.During World War I he was in Military service...

 (1931).

Description

Based on ancient drawings, the Atlas Wild Ass had stripes on its legs as well as a shoulder cross.

Range and ecology

The Atlas Wild Ass was found in the region around the Atlas Mountains

Atlas Mountains

The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...

, across modern day Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

External links

• Algerian/Atlas Wild Ass (Asinus atlanticus)