The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute discovered and named a new wolf specie after 150 years. The new specie is called the African Golden Wolf, and has been classified with the Eurasian Golden Jackal because of the similarities in the skull and teeth cavities. However, after a long and extensive research and backtracking of ancestries, the scientists of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute led by Klaus-Peter Koepfli, set up the distinction between the golden wolf and golden jackal.
"One of the main takeaways of our study is that even among well-known and widespread species such as golden jackals, there is the potential to discover hidden biodiversity, and that such discoveries are made even more possible by using data sampled from whole genomes," Koepfli said.
Koepfli and his team scrutinized 38 different genetic markers of 128 canid specimens, including jackals, gray wolves and dogs, and found that the Eurasian golden jackal and the new African golden wolf last shared a common ancestor about a million years ago.
"In fact, golden jackals from different localities in Africa share a more recent common ancestry with gray wolves," said Koepfli. "We found that the African golden jackal lineage split from gray wolves plus coyotes about 1.3 million years ago. The Eurasian golden jackal lineage, however, split about 600,000 years prior to that."
Now, the team is recommending retitling the new wolf species, African Golden Wolf, Canis anthus, while the Eurasian golden jackal would retain its current name Canis aureus.
After explaining the distinction based on genetic ancestry, Koepfli explained the reason for the similarities of the two canines.
"Since the two jackal lineages are not closely related, this morphological similarity may be due to parallel evolution, driven by the ecological circumstances in which these animals live, especially with regards to the competition from other carnivore species," Koepfli further elaborates.
The research study conducted by Koepfli and the SCB Institute was published in Current Biology.
