Dhole - Evolution and Taxonomy

Evolution and Taxonomy

Dholes are post-Pleistocene in origin, and are more closely related to jackals than they are to wolves. One theory has dholes becoming social animals as an adaptation to living with tigers and indian leopards.

George Gaylord Simpson placed dholes under the subfamily Symocyoninae along with the African wild dog and bush dog on account of shared anatomical features, namely the reduction of postcarnassial molars. Many have questioned this classification, arguing that these shared features are due to convergent evolution. Juliet Clutton-Brock concluded from comparing the morphological, behavioural and ecological characteristics of 39 different canid species that with the exception of skull and dentition, dholes more closely resembled canids of the genus Canis, Dusicyon and Vulpes/Alopex than to African wild dogs and bush dogs. A comparative study on dhole and other canid mtDNA in 1997 showed dholes diverged from the Lupus lupus lineage before the black-backed jackal and the golden jackal diverged, a few million years before the domestication of the dog.