A study by Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem and American, Spanish and Italian teams found the first and only fossil of an Ethiopian wolf from 1.5 million and not 20,000 years ago.
Published: MAY 17, 2023 16:14
Ethiopian wolf (Illustrative)
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The first fossil from an Ethiopian wolf in Africa – half a jawbone – has been found by experts from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (HU) along with Spanish and Italian paleontologists from the University of California at Berkeley.
A study published on Tuesday in the journal Communications Biology under the title “The earliest Ethiopian wolf: implications for the species evolution and its future survival,” unambiguously proves that the ancient Ethiopian wolf Canis simensis existed in Africa some 1.5 million years ago and not 20,000 years ago according to previous theories that suggested the mammal arrived from EuroAsia. The discovery “constitutes the first empirical evidence that supports molecular interpretations.”
The team included Prof. Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution and Dr. Gadi Herzlinger and Prof. Erella Hovers of HU’s Institute of Archaeology.