Aug 3, 2015, 09:54 PM
You’d have thought everything there is to discover on this planet has been discovered, especially on land. But you’d be wrong.
The golden jackal has lived in East Africa and Eurasia for a very long time. But it has recently been discovered that they are in fact two separate species, the African one being a new species of wolf. Which makes them the first new species of wolf discovered in 150 years.
It’s been renamed the African golden wolf and joins the gray wolf and the Ethiopian wolf as the only wolf species in Africa.
In depth analysis of their DNA has revealed that the species of golden jackal and the new African golden wolf have actually been evolving apart for millennia.
Apparently scientists have wondered about golden jackals possibly being wolves for many years but have only just made the discovery.
Klaus-Peter Koepfli, a biologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, made the discovery after sampling the DNA from 128 jackals.
Apparently the African golden jackal and the Eurasian golden jackal last shared an ancestor around a million years ago.
So now there’s a brand new type of wolf on the planet. Which is pretty cool.
Quoted from:
https://www.theladbible.com/articles/a-n...-150-years
The golden jackal has lived in East Africa and Eurasia for a very long time. But it has recently been discovered that they are in fact two separate species, the African one being a new species of wolf. Which makes them the first new species of wolf discovered in 150 years.
It’s been renamed the African golden wolf and joins the gray wolf and the Ethiopian wolf as the only wolf species in Africa.
In depth analysis of their DNA has revealed that the species of golden jackal and the new African golden wolf have actually been evolving apart for millennia.
Apparently scientists have wondered about golden jackals possibly being wolves for many years but have only just made the discovery.
Klaus-Peter Koepfli, a biologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, made the discovery after sampling the DNA from 128 jackals.
Apparently the African golden jackal and the Eurasian golden jackal last shared an ancestor around a million years ago.
So now there’s a brand new type of wolf on the planet. Which is pretty cool.
Quoted from: