Scientists have uncovered DNA evidence that the golden jackals originating from East Africa and Eurasia might look almost similar to each other but are apparently two different species.
These new findings will be added under the Canidae group which consists of dogs, wolves and foxes including jackals which raises the total population number of the species from 35 to 36.
These two similar populations of golden jackals are remarkably close when it comes to the shape and size of the body, teeth and its head shape with the same fur color and built similar to a wolf's. The animals also thrive in different habitats such as African savannas and Asian tropical rain forests. They are also both omnivores where they feed on fruits and small animals.
Researchers believe that the two jackal populations have separated some more than 1 million years ago which can be considered as reason enough to recognize them as two distinct species.
According to Klaus-Peter Koepfli from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, these results present that the African and Eurasian golden jackals are truly different from each other across all genetic markers that has been tested that also include data from whole genomes meaning, they have different evolutionary lineages.
During this genetic analysis, researchers discovered that the African golden jackals are more closely related to gray wolves even if there are virtually no gray wolves in Africa and the two species look entirely different from each other.
According to Koepfli, this study is based on mitochondrial sequences similar to prior studies that African golden jackals and Eurasian golden jackals are not each other's closest relatives which is commonly expected in same species. He also adds that golden jackals from Africa have the same ancestry with gray wolves.
Researchers also propose that the African golden jackal should be renamed as African golden wold or Africa Canis anthus. This new study is published in the journal, Current Biology.