Editing Jackal (section)

== Taxonomy and relationships ==
{{Cladogram|align=left|title=The extant wolf-like canids|caption=[[Phylogenetic tree|Phylogenetic relationships]] between the extant wolf-like clade of canids based on [[mitochondrial DNA]].<ref name=lindblad2005/><ref name=koepfli2015/>
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          |1=[[Dog]] <span style="{{MirrorH}}">[[File:202104 Dog.svg|50 px]]</span>
          |2=[[Wolf|Gray wolf]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes  (Plate I).jpg|50 px]]
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         |2=[[Coyote]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes  (Plate IX).jpg|50 px]]
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        |2=[[African wolf|Golden wolf]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XI).jpg|50 px]]
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       |2='''[[Golden jackal]]''' [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate X).jpg|50 px]]
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      |2= [[Ethiopian wolf]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate VI).jpg|50 px]]
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     |2=[[Dhole]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XLI).jpg|50 px]]
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    |2=[[African wild dog]] [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XLIV).jpg|50 px]]
   }}
  |2={{clade
   |1={{clade
    |1='''[[Side-striped jackal]]''' [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XIII).jpg|50 px]]
    |2='''[[Black-backed jackal]]''' [[File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XII).jpg|50 px]]
    }}
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Similarities between jackals and coyotes led [[Lorenz Oken]], in the third volume of his ''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte'' (1815), to place these species into a new separate genus, ''Thos'', named after the classical Greek word {{lang|grc|θώς}} "jackal", but his theory had little immediate impact on taxonomy at the time. [[Angel Cabrera (naturalist)|Angel Cabrera]], in his 1932 monograph on the mammals of [[Morocco]], questioned whether or not the presence of a [[Cingulum (tooth)|cingulum]] on the upper [[Molar (tooth)|molars]] of the jackals and its corresponding absence in the rest of ''Canis'' could justify a subdivision of that genus. In practice, Cabrera chose the undivided-genus alternative and referred to the jackals as ''Canis'' instead of ''Thos''.<ref name="thos" />

Oken's ''Thos'' theory was revived in 1914 by [[Edmund Heller]], who embraced the separate genus theory. Heller's names and the designations he gave to various jackal species and subspecies live on in current taxonomy, although the genus has been changed from ''Thos'' to ''Canis''.<ref name="thos">{{Cite web|url=http://www.holgerhomann.us/Thos_vs%20%20Canis.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416085153/http://www.holgerhomann.us/Thos_vs%20%20Canis.htm|url-status=dead|title=None|archivedate=April 16, 2008}}</ref>

The wolf-like canids are a group of large carnivores that are genetically closely related. They all have 78 [[chromosome]]s. The group includes genus ''Canis'', ''Cuon'', and ''Lycaon''. The members are the [[dog]] ''(C. lupus familiaris)'', [[gray wolf]] (''C. lupus''),  [[coyote]] (''C. latrans''), [[golden jackal]] (''C. aureus''), [[Ethiopian wolf]] (''C. simensis''), [[black-backed jackal]] (''C. mesomelas''), [[side-striped jackal]] (''C. adustus''), [[dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus''), and [[African wild dog]] (''Lycaon pictus'').<ref name=wayne1993/> The latest recognized member is the [[African wolf]] (''C. lupaster''), which was once thought to be an African branch of the golden jackal.<ref name=koepfli2015/> As they possess 78 chromosomes, all members of the genus ''[[Canis]]'' are [[Karyology|karyologically]] indistinguishable from each other, and from the dhole and the African hunting dog.<ref name=wayne2006/><ref name=wurster1982/> The two African jackals are shown to be the most [[basal (phylogenetics)|basal]] members of this clade, indicating the clade's origin from Africa.<ref name=lindblad2005/> ''[[Canis arnensis]]'' arrived in Mediterranean Europe 1.9&nbsp;million years ago and is probably the ancestor of modern jackals.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bartolini Lucenti|first1=Saverio|last2=Rook|first2=Lorenzo|date=2016-11-01|title=A review on the Late Villafranchian medium-sized canid Canis arnensis based on the evidence from Poggio Rosso (Tuscany, Italy)|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379116303493|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|language=en|volume=151|pages=58–71|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.09.005|bibcode=2016QSRv..151...58B |issn=0277-3791|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The paraphyletic nature of ''Canis'' with respect to ''[[Lycaon (genus)|Lycaon]]'' and ''[[Cuon]]'' has led to suggestions that the two African jackals should be assigned to different genera, ''Schaeffia'' for the side-striped jackal and ''Lupulella'' for the black-backed jackal<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Zrzavy, J. |author2=Ricankova, V. |year=2004 |title=Phylogeny of recent Canidae (Mammalia, Carnivora): relative reliability and the utility of morphological and molecular datasets |journal=Zool. Scr. |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=311–333 |doi=10.1111/j.0300-3256.2004.00152.x |s2cid=84733263 }}</ref> or ''Lupulella'' for both.<ref name=Privosti-2010>{{cite journal |last1=Privosti |first1=Francisco J. |title=Phylogeny of the large extinct South American Canids (Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae) using a ''total evidence'' approach |journal=Cladistics |volume=26 |issue=5 |year=2010 |pages=456–481 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00298.x |pmid=34875763 |s2cid=86650539 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>Viranta, S., Atickem, A., Werdelin, L., & Stenseth, N. C. (2017). Rediscovering a forgotten canid species. ''BMC Zoology'', ''2''(1), 6.</ref>

The intermediate size and shape of the Ethiopian wolf has at times led it to be regarded as a jackal, thus it has also been called the "red jackal" or the "Simien jackal".
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