Tibetan wolf

The Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus chanco), also known as the woolly wolf, is a gray wolf subspecies native to Central Asia from Turkestan throughout Tibet to Mongolia, northern China and the Indian subcontinent. In Tibet and Ladakh it is known as chánkú or shanko.

The Tibetan wolf is thought by some scientists to be the most likely ancestor of the domestic dog, on account of its small size and mandible morphology, noting that the uppermost part of the lower jaw is turned back on both the Tibetan wolf and the dog, though not so in other grey wolf subspecies.

Taxonomy

Currently listed as a sub-species of Canis lupus. In 2009, the Tibetan wolf was found to be genetically distinct enough to propose a separate species. In 2011, another genetic study found that the Tibetan wolf might be an archaic pedigree within the wolf subspecies, however the study defined Canis lupus laniger as the Tibetan wolf distinct from Canis lupus chanco the Mongolian wolf. In 2013, a major genetic study of dogs and wolves included the DNA sequences of 2 Tibetan wolves but then "excluded two aberrant modern wolf sequences from this analysis since their phylogenetic positioning suggests only a distant relationship to all extant gray wolves and their taxonomic classification as a member of Canis lupus or a separate sub-species is a matter of debate."