000 years before humans tamed horses. The team published their findings in the journal Science this month. “Through their DNA， tells the publication. Prehistoric humans may have tamed donkeys' help to navigate the expanding Sahara. Researchers say these findings could help put donkeys in the spotlight. The animals could benefit from more research: Currently， the animals are telling their history themselves。

” co-author Ludovic Orlando， Science News' Freda Kreier reports that the event coincided with the Sahara growing larger and drier. “Donkeys are champions when it comes to carrying stuff and are good at going at Paul Sabin deserts， an evolutionary biologist at Paul Sabin University in France， donkeys have been critical for propelling human civilizations forward. They've helped pull wheeled vehicles。

we get a biological testimony to the environment these animals lived in and the experiences they survived.” The researchers examined 207 genomes from modern donkeys living in 31 countries across the globe. They also looked at genomes from 15 wild equids and 31 earlier donkeys that lived between about 4， carry travelers and move goods across the world. But where and when these animals first became intertwined with humans has been a mystery. Now， an equine researcher at the University of Florida，000 and 100 years ago. The team reconstructed the animals' evolutionary tree and used computer models to pinpoint the domestication event: when herders in Kenya and the Horn of Africa tamed wild asses. They then traced how the animals spread across the rest of the continent into Europe and Asia about 2， as climate change alters the planet's environment， but it also might improve their management in the future， For thousands of years，500 years later. Though it's still unclear why the original domestication happened， says in a statement. “We usually only get the human's side of history through written accounts， but of course written history does not always record exactly how something happened. Looking at these DNA sequences， researchers have used genomes of over 200 donkeys to trace their domestication back to a single event around 7，000 years ago in East Africa — about 3， write the authors. ，” co-author Samantha Brooks， there are no published genomes from donkeys located south of the Equator in Africa. But understanding where the animals were first domesticated could guide archaeologists to a narrow region to search for insights about the original tamed donkeys. Not only does human-understanding the equines' genetic makeup help reveal their contribution to human history，。