Onager (their status in China is not well known). Persian onagers are currently being reintroduced in the Middle East as replacements for the extinct Syrian wild ass in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel and Jordan. The specific name is Ancient Greek ἡμίονος ("hēmíonos"), from ἡμι- (hēmi-), half, and ὄνος (ónos), donkey; thus, half-donkey or mule. In Persian the archaic word "gur" preserves the second syllable of the common Indo-European term that includes "ona"/"ono" (donkey) and "ger"/"gur" (swift). The species was commonly known as Asian wild ass, in which case the term "onager" was reserved for the "E. h. onager" subspecies, more specifically
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