The Cryptic African Wolf: Canis Aureus Lupaster Is Not a Golden Jackal 26 January 2011
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The cryptic African wolf: Canis aureus lupaster is not a golden jackal 26 January 2011 New molecular evidence reveals a new species of the grey wolf complex even earlier than the newly grey wolf living in Africa. Formerly confused with discovered African wolf." golden jackals, and thought to be an Egyptian subspecies of jackal, the new African wolf shows The Oslo/WildCRU/Addis Ababa team also found that members of the grey wolf lineage reached genetically very similar specimens 2,500 km from Africa about 3 million years ago, before they Egypt, in the highlands of Ethiopia. Golden jackals spread throughout the northern hemisphere. are regarded by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as not endangered - a As long ago as 1880 the great evolutionary "species of least concern" - but the newly biologist Thomas Huxley commented that Egyptian discovered African wolf may be much rarer. golden jackals - then as now regarded as a Certainly, it is a priority for both conservation and subspecies of the golden jackal - looked science to discover its whereabouts and numbers. suspiciously like grey wolves. The same Professor David Macdonald, an author of the paper observation was made by several 20th Century and Director of Oxford's WildCRU, remarks that "A biologists studying skulls. Nonetheless, the wolf in Africa is not only important conservation conventional taxonomy has not been changed. A news, but raises fascinating biological questions new study, involving a collaboration of biologists about how the new African wolf evolved and lived from the University of Oslo, Oxford University's alongside not only the real golden jackals but also Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) the vanishingly rare Ethiopian wolf, which is a very and Addis Ababa University, has uncovered different species with which the new discovery genetic evidence that unambiguously places the should not be confused." It seems that the Egyptian Egyptian jackal within the grey wolf species jackal is urgently set for a name-change, and its complex. It is not a jackal, but a wolf, taxonomically unique status as the only member of the grey wolf grouped with the Holarctic grey wolf, the Indian complex in Africa destines it to be re-named the wolf and the Himalayan wolf. Dr Eli Rueness, the African wolf. first author of the paper, states that "We could hardly believe our own eyes when we found wolf According to Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth, an DNA that did not match anything in GenBank." author of the paper and the Chair of the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), The genetic data indicate that the Indian and "This study shows the strengths of modern genetic Himalayan wolves evolved as separate taxa within techniques: old puzzles can be solved." "This the modern wolf cluster even before the grey wolf shows how genetic techniques may expose hidden radiated throughout the northern hemisphere. biodiversity in a relatively unexplored country like Furthermore, not only did these two types of Ethiopia," concludes Professor Afework Bekele at wolves originate before grey wolves radiated in Addis Ababa University. northern latitudes, but the wolfish colonization of Africa took place before the grey wolf radiation as More information: Rueness EK, Asmyhr MG, well. The colonization of Africa by the ancestral Sillero-Zubiri C, Macdonald DW, Bekele A, et al. stock of grey wolves took place about 3 million (2011) The Cryptic African Wolf: Canis aureus years ago and is today embodied by the animal lupaster Is Not a Golden Jackal and Is Not Endemic that has hitherto been called the Egyptian jackal. to Egypt. PLoS ONE 6(1): e16385. Professor Claudio Sillero, of the WildCRU and doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016385 current Chairman of the IUCN's Canid Specialist Group, added that "Ethiopian wolves split off from 1 / 2 Provided by Public Library of Science APA citation: The cryptic African wolf: Canis aureus lupaster is not a golden jackal (2011, January 26) retrieved 2 October 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2011-01-cryptic-african-wolf-canis-aureus.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. 2 / 2 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org).