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Given the position of the S805 haplotype on the phylogenetic tree, it may potentially represent a direct link from the progenitor (including Canis c.f. variabilis) to the domestic dog and modern wolf lineages. The grey wolf is thought to be ancestral to the domestic dog, however its relationship to C. variabilis, and the genetic contribution of ...
The wolf (Canis lupus; [b] pl.: wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo , though grey wolves, as popularly understood, only comprise naturally-occurring wild subspecies.
The red wolf is an enigmatic taxon, of which there are two proposals over its origin. One is that the red wolf is a distinct species (C. rufus) that has undergone human-influenced admixture with coyotes. The other is that it was never a distinct species but was derived from past admixture between coyotes and gray wolves, due to the gray wolf ...
Only a few species are arboreal—the gray fox, the closely related island fox [22] and the raccoon dog habitually climb trees. [23] [24] [25] All canids have a similar basic form, as exemplified by the gray wolf, although the relative length of muzzle, limbs, ears, and tail vary considerably between species.
Wolves may live in extended family groups. To take prey larger than themselves, the African wild dog, the dhole, and the gray wolf depend on their jaws as they cannot use their forelimbs to grapple with prey. They work together as a pack consisting of an alpha pair and their offspring from the current and previous years. [21]
Not included in either tribe is the genus Urocyon, which includes 2 species, mainly comprising the gray fox and believed to be basal to the family. Additionally, one genus in Canini, Dusicyon, was composed of two recently extinct species, with Dusicyon avus going extinct around 400 years ago and the Falkland Islands wolf going extinct in 1876.
The most recent common ancestor of the golden jackal and the wolf lineage dates back to 2 million YBP. The study proposes that 35,000 YBP there was genetic introgression into the Late Pleistocene grey wolf from a ghost population of an extinct canid which had diverged from the grey wolf lineage over 2 million YBP. This colour diversity could be ...
The study found this lineage to occupy its own branch on the gray wolf family tree, with the modern gray wolf and most domestic dogs (aside from Native American dogs and some Asian breeds) being more closely related to each other than Siberian Pleistocene wolves. [35]