Golden jackal: A new wolf species hiding in plain sight
The ‘golden jackals’ of East Africa are actually ‘golden wolves’ and are the first new species of wolf to be identified in Africa for more than 150 years.
A new species of wolf has been discovered in Africa after exhaustive DNA and morphological analyses revealed it is evolutionarily distinct from the Eurasian golden jackal, which it strongly resembles
- African and Eurasian golden jackals are genetically distinct lineages
- Divergence between lineages is concordant across multiple molecular markers
- Morphologic convergence is observed between African and Eurasian golden jackals
- African golden jackals merit recognition as a distinct species
The new results were published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology by a team of scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles.
More info: Golden jackal: A new wolf species hiding in plain sight and Golden wolf species discovered in East Africa
