By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
Conservationists in Egypt have discovered a new species of wolf, which shares DNA with Indian and Himalayan cousins.
The "Egyptian jackal", as it's known, is not in fact a jackal at all, despite the visual similarities it bears to another local species, the golden jackal. The discovery sheds light on how wolf species migrated through Africa and Europe -- proving that grey wolves emerged in Africa about 3 million years before they spread to the northern hemisphere.
As long ago as 1880 it had been noticed that the Egyptian jackal looked suspiciously like the grey wolf. Several biologists in the 20th century, studying skulls, made the same claim. Still, the creature retained its name. Now, the difference has been formalised.
The research is reported in the journal PLOS One. Said author David Macdonald in a press release: "A wolf in Africa is not only important conservation news, but raises fascinating biological questions about how the new African wolf evolved and lived alongside the real golden jackals."
Eli Rueness of the University of Oslo, who also contributed to the paper, added: "We could hardly believe our own eyes when we found wolf DNA that did not match anything."
However, the new species' DNA is quite close to wolves found 2,500 kilometres away in the highlands of Ethiopia, which hasn't been widely surveyed.
Professor Claudio Sillero, who's worked in Ethiopia for more than two decades, said in the release: "This discovery contributes to our understanding of the biogeography of Afroalpine fauna, an assemblage of species with African and Eurasian ancestry which evolved in the relative isolation of the highlands of the Horn of Africa. Rare Ethiopian wolves are themselves a recent immigrant to Africa, and split off from the grey wolf complex even earlier than the newly discovered African wolf."
The next step for the team is to work out how many of the wolves exist in the wild. While Golden jackals aren't threatened, it's possible that the "Egyptian jackal" -- which is now due for a renaming -- is much rarer. Discovering the extent of the population, and where they live, will now be a priority.
Image: Oxford University
Source: Wired.co.uk
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