Is the Eastern/Red Wolf a separate species from Gray Wolves or are Eastern/Red Wolves an admix of Gray Wolves and Western Coyotes?.........The back and forth debate between two of the worlds foremost teams of North American carnivore biologists/geneticists led by von Holdt(the admix avocates) and Hohenlohe/Rutledge(the distinct species advocates) was heightened with the release of the June 2017 Hohenlohe/Rutledge paper in SCIENCE ADVANCES MAGAZINE entitled : COMMENT ON "WHOLE-GENOME SEQUENCE ANALYSIS SHOWS TWO ENDEMIC SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOLF ARE ADMIXTURES OF THE COYOTE AND GRAY WOLF"...............Bottom line is that the Hohenlohe/Rutledge teams study of the vanHoldt research has them concluding that in fact "their(vonHoldt) data do not support a lack of unique ancestry in red and eastern wolves",,,,,,,,"Rather, substantial evidence still supports the conclusion that red and eastern wolves represent genetically distinct taxa among North American canids"............"The team's review of the vonHoldt study's analyses of genomic data finds the data do not establish definitive evidence for a recent hybrid origin of red and eastern wolves(the Gray Wolf/Coyote admix proposition), but rather are consistent with multiple evolutionary possibilities".............."Other data from the previous(vohHoldt) study, such as the amount of unique genetic variation found only within red or eastern wolves, further support the genetic distinctiveness of these(Eastern/Red Wolf) taxa"............ "These possibilities include red wolves originating from a hybridization event tens of thousands of years ago, or diverging as a distinct lineage as long as 100,000 years ago and experiencing some subsequent hybridization"............."Along with the ecological role of top predators and the benefits they provide to ecosystems through natural regulation, we believe that these genomic data argue for continued recognition of red and eastern wolves as distinct taxa for the purpose of conservation policy"

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://phys.org/news/2017-06-doesnt-theory-red-eastern-wolves.html&ct=ga&cd=CAEYBCoUMTIxMTAxNjM2Nzk2NDMyMDg5OTkyGjNlNTJiNDg3ZTUyODZjZjE6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNERi7KAGD-6Z7hF62jlDuCNwB0nKQ

VIEW TIME LAPSE FOOTAGE OF EASTERN WOLVES IN ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL
PARK IN ONTARIO, CANADA(credit to Linda Rutledge) by clicking on link above(half way down article is the video)

June 7, 2017

Study doesn't support theory red and eastern wolves are recent hybrids, researchers argue

   

       Red Wolf= Eastern Wolf-one and the same

   

     

   

           Eastern Wolf 

 
   A team led by University of Idaho researchers is calling into question a widely publicized 2016 study that concluded eastern and red wolves are not distinct species, but rather recent hybrids of gray wolves and coyotes. In a comment paper that will publish Wednesday, June 7, in the journal Science Advances, the team examines the previous study and argues that its genomic data and analyses do not definitively prove recent hybridization—but rather provide support for the genetic and evolutionary distinctiveness of red and eastern wolves.

         "The history of these species is complex and certainly contains evidence for hybridization in the past. The question is timing," said Paul Hohenlohe, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the UI College of Science and the lead author of the comment paper. "The data and analyses aren't actually a good test of recent vs. older hybridization. In fact, the data are consistent with red and eastern wolves having a long evolutionary history as distinct lineages."

Hohenlohe co-authored the paper with an interdisciplinary team that included co-lead author Linda Rutledge, a research associate in the biology department at Trent University in Ontario, Canada; Lisette Waits, a Distinguished Professor in UI's College of Natural Resources Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences; UI research scientist Jennifer Adams; UI postdoctoral researcher Kimberly Andrews; and other researchers from Trent, the University of Georgia and Northland


Gray Wolf

TThe UI-led team addresses several concerns with the previous study, which was led by Princeton University's Bridgett vonHoldt and published in Science Advances in July 2016. The team questions the vonHoldt study's use of genomic data from a few individual coyotes and eastern wolves that may not be the best representatives of those groups, as well as the authors' conclusion that genomic data demonstrate a lack of unique ancestry in red and eastern wolves

The team's review of the vonHoldt study's analyses of genomic data finds the data do not establish definitive evidence for a recent hybrid origin of red and eastern wolves, but rather are consistent with multiple evolutionary possibilities. These possibilities include red wolves originating from a hybridization event tens of thousands of years ago, or diverging as a distinct lineage as long as 100,000 years ago and experiencing some subsequent hybridization.

The UI-led team finds that other data from the previous study, such as the amount of unique genetic variation found only within red or eastern wolves, further support the genetic distinctiveness of these taxa.

 Western Coyote

Hohenlohe, Waits and their collaborators are conducting further analyses about red and eastern wolf origins, and expect to continue to generate new data and hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships among these species, the gray wolf and the coyote.

"Genomics is an exciting new contribution to wildlife conservation, but it brings with it a responsibility to provide a coherent interpretation of complex data within the context of natural history," Rutledge said. "This is especially important for species at risk of extinction where the consequences involve the permanent loss of evolutionary potential. We get closer to the evolutionary truth when we use a holistic approach that includes multiple sources of information."



Eastern Coyote= Eastern/Red Wolf/Western Coyote hybrid

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http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/6/e1602250

Comment on
“Whole-genome sequence
 analysis shows two
endemic species of North
American wolf are
admixtures of the coyote
and gray wolf”

1. Paul A. Hohenlohe1,*,†, 
2. Linda Y. Rutledge2,†, 

1. Lisette P. Waits3, 
2. Kimberly R. Andrews3, 

1. Jennifer R. Adams3, 
2. Joseph W. Hinton4, 

1. Ronald M. Nowak5, 
2. Brent R. Patterson6, 
 

1. Adrian P. Wydeven7, 
2. Paul A. Wilson2 

1. and 
2. Brad N. White2

1. 1Department of Biological Sciences, University
2.  of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-3051, USA.
3. 2Biology Department, Trent University, Peterborough,
4.  Ontario K9L 0G2, Canada.
5. 3Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University 
6. of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1136, USA.
7. 4Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources,
8.  University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
9. 5Falls Church, VA 22043, USA.
10. 6Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Trent 
11. University, Peterborough, Ontario K9L 0G2, Canada.
12. 7Timber Wolf Alliance, Northland College, Ashland,
13.  WI 54806, USA.

1. ↵*Corresponding author. Email:
2.  hohenlohe@uidaho.edu

INTRODUCTION

In a recent article, vonHoldt and colleagues (1) use
whole-genome sequence data to address the
relationships and evolutionary origins of several
 North American canid taxa. The authors conclude
 that two taxa, the red wolf (Canis rufus) and the
 eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), are not long-diverged
 lineages as other researchers have concluded from
 genetic (2–7) and fossil evidence (8, 9)

 but are, rather, populations resulting from recent
admixture between gray wolves (Canis lupus)

 and coyotes (Canis latrans). They use this conclusion
 to argue that endangered species policy should better
account for hybridization and admixture. We agree
 that hybridization and admixture

 are widespread in the natural world and that the
conservation policy needs to be updated to 

account for this biological reality. However, we strongly
 disagree with their conclusion that red 

and eastern wolves are of recent hybrid origin and we
 conclude that their analysis does not 

actually test the hypothesis of a recent hybrid origin.
Their data are consistent with multiple

 hypotheses for the origins of red and eastern wolves,
 including relatively old origins of these taxa. Furthermore,
we argue that their data do not support “a lack of unique
ancestry in red and eastern wolves” (1); rather, substantial
 evidence still supports the conclusion that red and eastern
 wolves represent genetically distinct taxa among North
 American canids. Below, we detail this

 perspective and argue for further analyses that would
 directly test competing hypotheses for the evolutionary
 origins of these groups.