Onager (weapon) Onager (weapon) The onager (British /ˈɒnədʒə/, /ˈɒnəɡə/, U.S. /ˈɑnədʒər/) was an imperial-era Roman torsion powered siege engine; in other words, a small catapult. The onager was first mentioned in 353 AD by Ammianus Marcellinus, who described onagers as the same as a scorpion. According to two authors of the later Roman Empire who wrote on military affairs, the onager derived its name from the kicking action of the machine that threw stones into the air, as did the hooves of the wild ass, the onager, which was native to the eastern part of the empire. The onager consisted of a
Onager ancestor of all modern equids (members of the genus "Equus") lived around 5.6 (3.9–7.8) million years ago (Mya). Direct paleogenomic sequencing of a 700,000-year-old middle Pleistocene horse metapodial bone from Canada implies a more recent 4.07 Mya for the most recent common ancestor within the range of 4.0 to 4.5 Mya. The oldest divergencies are the Asian hemiones (subgenus "E. (Asinus)", including the kulan, onager, and kiang), followed by the African zebras (subgenera "E. (Dolichohippus)", and "E. (Hippotigris)"). All other modern forms including the domesticated horse (and many fossil Pliocene and Pleistocene forms) belong to the subgenus "E. (Equus)" which