Rediscovering a forgotten canid species

Abstract

Background: The African wolf, for which we herein recognise Canis lupaster Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832 (Symbolae Physicae quae ex Itinere

Cranial variability and differentiation among golden jackals (Canis aureus) in Europe, Asia Minor and Africa

“…However, Ferguson (1981) suggested that the taxon C. aureus lupaster, which is present in arid areas of Egypt and Libya, may represent a small Canis lupus rather than a large jackal. The opinion that Canis lupaster must be considered as a different species was recently confirmed by other studies based on morphological differences (Spassov and Stoyanov 2014;Bertè 2017;Viranta et al 2017). However, recently published accounts on the issue (Rueness et al 2011;Gaubert et al 2012;Koepfli et al 2015;Viranta et al 2017;Gopalakrishnan et al 2018) proved the need for morphological and morphometric studies to resolve taxonomic uncertainty.…”

“…The opinion that Canis lupaster must be considered as a different species was recently confirmed by other studies based on morphological differences (Spassov and Stoyanov 2014;Bertè 2017;Viranta et al 2017). However, recently published accounts on the issue (Rueness et al 2011;Gaubert et al 2012;Koepfli et al 2015;Viranta et al 2017;Gopalakrishnan et al 2018) proved the need for morphological and morphometric studies to resolve taxonomic uncertainty. According to Moehlman and Hayssen (2018), all jackals included so far in the taxon Canis aureus may represent three canid taxa: Canis aureus, Canis anthus and Canis lupus.…”

“…The population of African wolves was separated in two very distinct clusters both in size and shape of skulls. Although, there are significant differences in size between populations of Canis lupaster, with East African individuals being smaller than North and West African ones (Viranta 2017), it seems that this is not a clinal variation, and at least two different morphotypes exist (Gaubert et al 2012, Saleh andBasuony 2014). A basicranial length distribution from 57 specimens identified in museums as Canis aureus and collected in North Africa, from Egypt to Morocco, is noticeably bimodal, with an anti-mode at around 160 mm, and a disproportionate number of the skulls (N = 35) measuring over 161.00 mm had the Nile Valley, and neighbouring areas, as their region of origin (and most of them, interestingly, were museum labelled as Canis aureus lupaster) (Gonzalez 2012).…”

“…A recent genetic study included a larger and more geographically widespread sampling of African golden jackal and also showed that Canis anthus/lupaster was distinct from the Eurasian Canis aureus (Gopalakrishnan et al 2018). Based on molecular sequencing and morphological analyses, Viranta et al (2017) suggested that the estimated current geographic range of golden jackal in Africa represents the African wolf range, but considered Canis anthus (Cuvier, 1820) as nomen dubium and proposed Canis lupaster as the name for the African wolf. However, an exhaustive analysis on different populations of African golden jackal is absent.…”

“…According to Moehlman and Hayssen (2018), all jackals included so far in the taxon Canis aureus may represent three canid taxa: Canis aureus, Canis anthus and Canis lupus. However, based on recent genetic studies (Koepfli et al 2015;Viranta et al 2017;Gopalakrishnan et al 2018), only Canis lupaster and Canis aureus are considered as valid taxa and Canis lupaster supersedes Canis anthus as a valid taxonomic name, although not widely accepted. Here I use the names "African golden jackal" (Canis anthus s.…”