A paper published July 30 in Current Biolology revealed that the golden jackal populations living in Eurasia and Africa are actually two different species, giving rise to a new species: The African golden wolf. The paper asserts that an in-depth analysis of the animals' DNA revealed that the two populations split more than one million years ago and evolved separately, according to National Geographic.
"I was very surprised," said study leader Klaus-Peter Koepfli, a biologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.
The analysis also revealed that African golden jackals are more closely related to grey wolves, despite there being no grey wolves in Africa and the fact that grey wolves and African golden jackals look dramatically different.
Coincidentally, African golden jackals look extremely similar to the Eurasian golden jackal, with the only differences being that the Eurasian variety are smaller than their African counterparts - with a narrower skull and slightly weaker teeth, according to CBC News. This physical similarity was the prime source of confusion over these animals' taxonomy and evolutionary relationships.
Following this discovery, authors of the the paper proposed that the African golden jackal, once called Canis aureus, be renamed Canis anthus, or the African golden wolf.
The African golden wolf is the first new species of canid - a group that includes wolves, jackals, coyotes, dogs and foxes - to be discovered in 150 years.
This finding raises the number of living species in the canidae family, from 35 to 36.
