African wild ass descendant. Thus, if one species is recognized, the correct scientific name of the donkey is "E. africanus asinus". The first published name for the African wild ass, "Asinus africanus", Fitzinger, 1858, is a nomen nudum. The name "Equus taeniopus" von Heuglin, 1861 is rejected as indeterminable, as it is based on an animal that cannot be identified and may have been a hybrid between a domestic donkey and a Somali wild ass; the type has not been preserved. The first available name thus becomes "Asinus africanus" von Heuglin & Fitzinger, 1866. A lectotype is designated: a skull of an adult
Equus (genus) each other both visually and vocally. Human activities have threatened wild equine populations. The word "equus" is Latin for "horse", and is cognate with the Greek ἵππος ("hippos"), "horse", and Mycenaean Greek "i-qo" /ikkʷos/, the earliest attested variant of the Greek word, written in Linear B syllabic script.; compare the alternative development of the Proto-Greek labiovelar in Ionic ἴκκος ("ikkos"). The genus "Equus" was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is the only recognized extant genus in the family Equidae. The first equids were small, dog-sized mammals (e.g. "Eohippus") adapted for browsing on shrubs during the Eocene, around