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The domestic dog is a divergent subspecies of the gray wolf and was derived from an extinct population of Late Pleistocene wolves. [8] [31] [32] Through selective pressure and selective breeding, the domestic dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. [33]
The gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America.This species and its only congener, the diminutive island fox (Urocyon littoralis) of the California Channel Islands, are the only living members of the genus Urocyon, which is considered to be genetically sister to all other living canids.
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.
Not included in either tribe is the genus Urocyon, which includes 2 species, mainly comprising the gray fox and believed to be basal to the family. Additionally, one genus in Canini, Dusicyon , was composed of two recently extinct species, with Dusicyon avus going extinct around 400 years ago and the Falkland Islands wolf going extinct in 1876.
A large wolf, it was found all over North and Central America and was eventually supplanted by the dire wolf, which then spread into South America during the Late Pleistocene. [15] By 0.3 Mya, a number of subspecies of the gray wolf (C. lupus) had developed and had spread throughout Europe and northern Asia. [16]
True members of Canis, namely the gray wolf and coyote, likely only arrived in the New World during the Late Pleistocene, where their dietary flexibility and/or ability to hybridize with other canids allowed them to survive the Quaternary extinction event, unlike the dire wolf. [14] Xenocyon (strange wolf) is an extinct subgenus of Canis. [15]
Gray wolves in the north could ultimately breed with subspecies Mexican gray wolves being managed in southern New Mexico and eastern Arizona in an experimental population area established by the ...
Wayne and Jenks (1991) and Roy et al. (1994b, 1996) supported this suggestion with genetic analysis. Phillips and Henry (1992) present logic supporting the contention that the red wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf. However, recent genetic and morphological evidence suggests that the red wolf is a unique taxon.