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The taxonomic classification of Canis lupus in Mammal Species of the World (3rd edition, 2005) listed 27 subspecies of North American wolf, [7] corresponding to the 24 Canis lupus subspecies and the three Canis rufus subspecies of Hall (1981). [1] The table below shows the extant subspecies, with the extinct ones listed in the following section.
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 Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus), also known as the common wolf, [3] is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Europe and Asia. It was once widespread throughout Eurasia prior to the Middle Ages . Aside from an extensive paleontological record, Indo-European languages typically have several words for "wolf", thus attesting to the animal's ...
In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus assigned the genus name Canis (which is the Latin word for "dog") [13] to the domestic dog, the wolf, and the golden jackal in his book, Systema Naturae. He classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris and, on the next page, classified the grey wolf as Canis lupus. [2]
This was followed by an explosion of Canis evolution across Eurasia in the Early Pleistocene around 1.8 million YBP in what is commonly referred to as the wolf event. It is associated with the formation of the mammoth steppe and continental glaciation. Canis spread to Europe in the forms of C. arnensis, C. etruscus, and C. falconeri. [1]: p148
The Arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos), also known as the white wolf, polar wolf, and the Arctic grey wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesmere Island. [3]
The Iberian wolf Canis lupus signatus Cabrera 1907 [2] is classified as Canis lupus lupus by Mammal Species of the World. [5] Some authors claim that the south-eastern Spanish wolf, last sighted in Murcia in the 1930s, was a different subspecies called Canis lupus deitanus. It was even smaller and more reddish in color, without dark spots.
The Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus [3] [4] or Canis lupus lupus [5]), also known as the Apennine wolf, [6] [7] is a subspecies of the grey wolf native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the Apennine Mountains and the Western Alps , though it is undergoing expansion towards the north and east.