African wild ass (Equus)" which diverged ~4.8 (3.2–6.5) million years ago. Different authors consider the African wild ass and the domesticated donkey one or two species; either view is technically legitimate, though the former is phylogenetically more accurate. The species name for the African wild ass is sometimes given as "asinus", from the domestic donkey, whose specific name is older and usually would have priority. But this usage is erroneous since the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has conserved the name "Equus africanus" in Opinion 2027. This was done to prevent the confusing situation of the phylogenetic ancestor being taxonomically included in its
Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus africanus is an extinct ("fossil") species of the australopithecines, the first of an early ape-form species to be classified as hominin (in 1924). Recently it was dated as living between 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago, or in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene times; it is debated as being a direct ancestor of modern humans. "A. africanus" was of slender, or gracile, build and has been found only in southern Africa at four sites: Taung (1924), Sterkfontein (1935), Makapansgat (1948) and Gladysvale (1992). Raymond Dart, then the head of the department of anatomy at the University