Bronze Age bioengineers created the earliest hybrid animal – a majestic horse-like creature known as a kunga that had a donkey mom, a Syrian wild ass for a father and lived 4,500 years ago.

That animal is a kunga, which the researchers show was a cross between a female donkey and a male Syrian wild ass. Kungas were valuable in Mesopotamia, costing up to six times as much as a donkey.

In ancient Mesopotamia 4,500 years ago, long before horses arrived in the region, another spirited member of the equine family, the kunga, took a starring role in pulling four-wheeled wagons into ...

Like other hybrids in the animal kingdom, such as the mule or the liger, the kunga was sterile. They had to be intentionally bred by mating a female donkey with a male wild ass, per Gizmodo .

The equid skeletons were found in Umm el-Marra, which is located in modern-day Syria.They were buried in their own installments, suggesting the animals were perceived as particularly valuable.

From mules to ligers, the list of human-made hybrid animals is long. And, it turns out, ancient. Meet the kunga, the earliest known hybrid animal bred by people. The ancient equine from Syro ...

Bronze Age bioengineers created the earliest hybrid animal – a majestic horse-like creature known as a kunga that had a donkey mom, a Syrian wild ass for a father and lived 4,500 years ago.