The Cryptic African Wolf: Canis aureus lupaster Is Not a Golden Jackal and Is Not Endemic to Egypt
نویسندگان
چکیده
The Egyptian jackal (Canis aureus lupaster) has hitherto been considered a large, rare subspecies of the golden jackal (C. aureus). It has maintained its taxonomical status to date, despite studies demonstrating morphological similarities to the grey wolf (C. lupus). We have analyzed 2055 bp of mitochondrial DNA from C. a. lupaster and investigated the similarity to C. aureus and C. lupus. Through phylogenetic comparison with all wild wolf-like canids (based on 726 bp of the Cytochrome b gene) we conclusively (100% bootstrap support) place the Egyptian jackal within the grey wolf species complex, together with the Holarctic wolf, the Indian wolf and the Himalayan wolf. Like the two latter taxa, C. a. lupaster seems to represent an ancient wolf lineage which most likely colonized Africa prior to the northern hemisphere radiation. We thus refer to C. a. lupaster as the African wolf. Furthermore, we have detected C. a. lupaster individuals at two localities in the Ethiopian highlands, extending the distribution by at least 2,500 km southeast. The only grey wolf species to inhabit the African continent is a cryptic species for which the conservation status urgently needs assessment.
منابع مشابه
Reviving the African Wolf Canis lupus lupaster in North and West Africa: A Mitochondrial Lineage Ranging More than 6,000 km Wide
The recent discovery of a lineage of gray wolf in North-East Africa suggests the presence of a cryptic canid on the continent, the African wolf Canis lupus lupaster. We analyzed the mtDNA diversity (cytochrome b and control region) of a series of African Canis including wolf-like animals from North and West Africa. Our objectives were to assess the actual range of C. l. lupaster, to further est...
متن کاملThe African wolf is a missing link in the wolf - like canid phylogeny
Keywords Wolves, genome-wide phylogeny, canid evolution.. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was. Abstract Here we present the first genomic data for the African wolf (Canis aureus lupaster) and conclusively demonstrate that it is a unique taxon and not a hybrid between other c...
متن کاملRediscovering a forgotten canid species
Background: The African wolf, for which we herein recognise Canis lupaster Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832 (Symbolae Physicae quae ex Itinere Africam Borealem er Asoam Occidentalem Decas Secunda. Berlin, 1833) as the valid species name (we consider the older name Canis anthus Cuvier, 1820 [Le Chacal de Sénégal, Femelle. In: Geoffroy St.-Hilaire E, Cuvier F, editors. Histoire Naturelle des Mammifèr...
متن کاملPhylogeography of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in India
The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is one of the most common and widely distributed carnivores in India but phylogeographic studies on the species have been limited across its range. Recent studies have observed absence of mitochondrial (mt) DNA diversity in European populations while some North African populations of golden jackal were found to carry gray wolf (Canis lupus lupaster) mtDNA lineag...
متن کاملPrevalence of parasitic infections in the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Iran
Red foxes and golden jackals are the two most abundant wild carnivores of Iran which have the ability to adopt a variety of habitats and human proximity. Despite this, very few investigations on their helminth and none on their external parasites infections have been carried out in Iran. Between 2003 and 2004, a total of 79 jackals and 37 foxes were collected from 3 different climatic zones of ...
متن کامل