Zebras (Genus Equus) from nine Quaternary sites in Kenya, East Africa

The Olduvai zebra, Equus oldowayensis, is identified or confirmed from the following sites: Olorgesailie, Lake Magadi; Marsabit Road, Northern Kenya; Chemoigut Beds (Chesowanja), Baringo Basin; Wajir, Northeast Kenya; Bura, Tana River; Makalia River (MacInnes Site), Rift Valley; Legetet, Koru; Karmosit, Suguta River; and Kanjera, Homa Mountain, all in Kenya, on the evidence from isolated teeth and other fragments. Burchell's zebra, E. burchellii, appears to have been absent from all the sites except possibly Olorgesailie and the Chemoigut Beds.E. oldowayensis is known from about 1.8 Ma ago in Bed I at Olduvai Gorge and from about 1.9 Ma ago in the Shungura Formation (Member G) in the Omo deposits, before which no reliable records are recognised. It was the common and dominant zebra of the latest Pliocene and Pleistocene in the East African plains and was replaced by the present common zebra, E. burchellii, only during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene times. E. oldowayensis is similar to modern Grevy's zebra, E. grevyi, to which it gave rise, and these two zebras are not directly related to Burchell's zebra.