Postcranial diversity and recent ecomorphic impoverishment of North American gray wolves

Recent advances in genomics and palaeontology have begun to unravel the complex evolutionary history of the gray wolf, Canis lupus . Still, much of their phenotypic variation across time and space remains to be documented. We examined the limb morphology of the fossil and modern North American gray wolves from the late Quaternary (< ca 70 ka) to better understand their postcranial diversity through time. We found that the late-Pleistocene gray wolves were characterized by short-leggedness on both sides of the Cordilleran–Laurentide ice sheets, and that this trait survived well into the Holocene despite the collapse of Pleistocene megafauna and disappearance of the ‘Beringian wolf' from Alaska. By contrast, extant populations in the Midwestern USA and northwestern North America are distinguished by their elongate limbs with long distal segments, which appear to have evolved during the Holocene possibly in response to a new level or type of prey depletion. One of the consequences of recent extirpation of the Plains ( Canis lupus nubilus ) and Mexican wolves ( C. l. baileyi ) from much of the USA is an unprecedented loss of postcranial diversity through removal of short-legged forms. Conservation of these wolves is thus critical to restoration of the ecophenotypic diversity and evolutionary potential of gray wolves in North America.

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Late Quaternary paleoenvironments of Northwestern North America: implications for inland versus coastal migration routes

Quaternary Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/s0277-3791(00)00115-3 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 20 (1-3) ◽

pp. 301-314 ◽

Cited By ~ 141

Author(s):

Carole A.S Mandryk ◽

Heiner Josenhans ◽

Daryl W Fedje ◽

Rolf W Mathewes

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Migration Routes ◽

Northwestern North America

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Chromosome races in Rumex arcticus (Polygonaceae)

Canadian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1139/b72-053 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 378-380

Author(s):

Gerald A. Mulligan ◽

Clarence Frankton

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

North American ◽

Bering Sea ◽

Kamchatka Peninsula ◽

The Arctic ◽

Chromosome Races ◽

High Polyploid ◽

Seward Peninsula ◽

Northwestern North America ◽

The Bering Sea

Rumex arcticus Trautv., a species found on the mainland of northwestern North America and in northeastern U.S.S.R., contains tetraploid (2n = 40), dodecaploid (2n = 120), and perhaps 2n = 160 and 2n = 200 chromosome races. Most North American plants are tetraploid and are larger in size and have more compound and contiguous inflorescences than typical R. arcticus. Typical plants of R. arcticus occur in the arctic U.S.S.R., St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, and at the tip of the Seward Peninsula of Alaska, and they all have 120 or more somatic chromosomes. High polyploid plants of R. arcticus that resemble North American tetraploids in appearance apparently occur on the Kamchatka Peninsula. These have been called R. kamtshadalus Komarov or R. arcticus var. kamtshadalus (Kom.) Rech. f. by some authors.

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Impacts of recolonizing gray wolves (Canis lupus) on survival and mortality in two sympatric ungulates

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/cjz-2017-0282 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 96 (7) ◽

pp. 760-768 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J.A. Dellinger ◽

C.R. Shores ◽

M. Marsh ◽

M.R. Heithaus ◽

W.J. Ripple ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canis Lupus ◽

Mule Deer ◽

Survival Rates ◽

Odocoileus Hemionus ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Adult Survival ◽

Mortality Data ◽

Gray Wolf ◽

Gray Wolves ◽

Large Predators

There is growing recognition that humans may mediate the strength and nature of the ecological effects of large predators. We took advantage of ongoing gray wolf (Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) recolonization in Washington, USA, to contrast adult survival rates and sources of mortality for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817)) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) in areas with and without wolf packs in a managed landscape dominated by multiple human uses. We tested the hypothesis that the addition of wolves to the existing predator guild would augment predator-induced mortality rates for both ungulates. Source of mortality data from adult mule deer and white-tailed deer, respectively, revealed that wolf-related mortality was low compared with that inflicted by other predators or humans. Predator-caused mortality was largely confined to winter. There was little effect of wolf presence on adult deer mortality rates, and there was no difference in mortality between the two deer species relative to wolf-free or wolf-occupied sites. Although this study occurred early in wolf recovery in Washington, our results differ from those demonstrated for gray wolves in protected areas. Thus, we encourage further investigation of effects of direct predation by recolonizing large carnivores on prey in human-dominated landscapes.

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Severe Maxillary Osteomyelitis in a Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

The Canadian Field-Naturalist ◽

10.22621/cfn.v126i3.1368 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 126 (3) ◽

pp. 238 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Shannon Barber-Meyer

Keyword(s):

Canis Lupus ◽

Gray Wolf ◽

Gray Wolves ◽

Dental Injuries

Whereas dental injuries and abnormalities have been documented in Gray Wolves (Canis lupus), severe maxillary necrosis has not previously been implicated in a Gray Wolf fatality. Here I report maxillary osteomyelitis in a wild Gray Wolf from northeastern Minnesota of such severity that I hypothesize it ultimately led to death by starvation.

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An Account of the Taxonomy of North American Wolves From Morphological and Genetic Analyses

North American Fauna ◽

10.3996/nafa.77.0001 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 77 (1) ◽

pp. 1-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Steven M. Chambers ◽

Steven R. Fain ◽

Bud Fazio ◽

Michael Amaral

Keyword(s):

North American ◽

Canis Lupus ◽

Microsatellite Dna ◽

Genetic Data ◽

Morphological Data ◽

The Arctic ◽

Gray Wolf ◽

Eastern Canada ◽

Canis Rufus ◽

Eastern Wolf

Abstract The available scientific literature was reviewed to assess the taxonomic standing of North American wolves, including subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus. The recent scientific proposal that the eastern wolf, C. l. lycaon, is not a subspecies of gray wolf, but a full species, Canis lycaon, is well-supported by both morphological and genetic data. This species' range extends westward to Minnesota, and it hybridizes with gray wolves where the two species are in contact in eastern Canada and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Genetic data support a close relationship between eastern wolf and red wolf Canis rufus, but do not support the proposal that they are the same species; it is more likely that they evolved independently from different lineages of a common ancestor with coyotes. The genetic distinctiveness of the Mexican wolf Canis lupus baileyi supports its recognition as a subspecies. The available genetic and morphometric data do not provide clear support for the recognition of the Arctic wolf Canis lupus arctos, but the available genetic data are almost entirely limited to one group of genetic markers (microsatellite DNA) and are not definitive on this question. Recognition of the northern timber wolf Canis lupus occidentalis and the plains wolf Canis lupus nubilus as subspecies is supported by morphological data and extensive studies of microsatellite DNA variation where both subspecies are in contact in Canada. The wolves of coastal areas in southeastern Alaska and British Columbia should be assigned to C. lupus nubilus. There is scientific support for the taxa recognized here, but delineation of exact geographic boundaries presents challenges. Rather than sharp boundaries between taxa, boundaries should generally be thought of as intergrade zones of variable width.

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Reconciling reconstructed and simulated features of the winter Pacific–North-American pattern in the early 19th century

Climate of the Past Discussions ◽

10.5194/cpd-10-4425-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 4425-4468

Author(s):

D. Zanchettin ◽

O. Bothe ◽

F. Lehner ◽

P. Ortega ◽

C. C. Raible ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

19Th Century ◽

North American ◽

Climate Models ◽

Reconstruction Process ◽

Early 19Th Century ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Pacific North American ◽

Climate Simulations ◽

Northwestern North America

Abstract. Reconstructions of past climate behavior often describe prominent anomalous periods that are not necessarily captured in climate simulations. Here, we illustrate the contrast between an interdecadal strong positive phase of the winter Pacific/North American pattern (PNA) in the early 19th century that is described by a PNA reconstruction based on tree-rings from northwestern North America, and a slight tendency towards negative winter PNA anomalies during the same period in an ensemble of state-of-the-art coupled climate simulations. Additionally, a pseudo-proxy investigation with the same simulation ensemble allows assessing the robustness of PNA reconstructions using solely geophysical predictors from northwestern North America for the last millennium. The reconstructed early-19th-century positive PNA anomaly emerges as a potentially reliable feature, although it is subject to a number of sources of uncertainty and potential deficiencies. The pseudo-reconstructions demonstrate that the early-19th-century discrepancy between reconstructed and simulated PNA does not stem from the reconstruction process. Instead, reconstructed and simulated features of the early-19th-century PNA can be reconciled by interpreting the reconstructed evolution during this time as an expression of internal climate variability, hence unlikely to be reproduced in its exact temporal occurrence by a small ensemble of climate simulations. However, firm attribution of the reconstructed PNA anomaly is hampered by known limitations and deficiencies of coupled climate models and uncertainties in the early-19th-century external forcing and background climate conditions.

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The Japanese wolf is most closely related to modern dogs and its ancestral genome has been widely inherited by dogs throughout East Eurasia

10.1101/2021.10.10.463851 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jun Gojobori ◽

Nami Arakawa ◽

Xiaokaiti Xiayire ◽

Yuki Matsumoto ◽

Shuichi Matsumura ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canis Lupus ◽

Early Stage ◽

Transitional Period ◽

Gray Wolf ◽

Ancestral Genome ◽

Gray Wolves ◽

Japanese Archipelago ◽

Whole Genomes ◽

Genomic Analyses ◽

The Japanese Archipelago

The Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax Temminck, 1839) was a subspecies of the gray wolf that inhabited the Japanese Archipelago and became extinct 100-120 years ago. In this study, we determined the whole genomes of nine Japanese wolves from the 19th- early 20th centuries and 11 Japanese dogs and analyzed them along with both modern and ancient wolves and dogs. Genomic analyses indicate that the Japanese wolf was a unique subspecies of the gray wolf that was genetically distinct from both modern and ancient gray wolves, lacking gene flow with other gray wolves. A Phylogenetic tree that minimizes the effects of introgression shows that Japanese wolves are closest to the dog monophyletic group among the gray wolves. Moreover, Japanese wolves show significant genetic affinities with East Eurasian dogs. We estimated the level of introgression from the ancestor of the Japanese wolves to the ancestor of East Eurasian dogs that had occurred in the transitional period from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, at an early stage after divergence from West Eurasian dog lineages. Because of this introgression, Japanese wolf ancestry has been inherited by many dogs through admixture between East Eurasian dog lineages. As a result of this heredity, up to 5.5% of modern dog genomes throughout East Eurasia are derived from Japanese wolf ancestry.

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Introduction to the Population Ecology of North American Caribou

Rangifer ◽

10.7557/2.16.4.1214 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 11

Author(s):

Dale R. Seip ◽

Kent Brown

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Population Ecology ◽

North American ◽

Canis Lupus ◽

General Model ◽

Competition For Food ◽

The Impact

Bergerud has discussed how major differences in caribou density across North America appear to be related to the impact of wolf (Canis lupus) predation, and the strategies used by caribou to avoid wolves. Caribou living in areas without wolves usually occur at high densities and are regulated by competition for food. In this session, we asked the presenters to discuss the population ecology of different caribou herds in North America and to evaluate if they fit the general model.

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Biotypic Diversity and Resistance to the Raspberry Aphid Amphorophora agathonica in Pacific Northwestern North America

Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science ◽

10.21273/jashs.137.6.445 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 137 (6) ◽

pp. 445-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Michael Dossett ◽

Chaim Kempler

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

North America ◽

North American ◽

Rubus Idaeus ◽

Red Raspberry ◽

Sources Of Resistance ◽

Breeding Programs ◽

Production Region ◽

Northwestern North America ◽

Amphorophora Agathonica

Resistance to colonization by the raspberry aphid (Amphorophora agathonica Hottes) has been an important objective in North American red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) breeding programs since the 1930s because of its effectiveness in controlling the spread of aphid-transmitted viruses in red raspberry. The most widely used source of resistance in North America has been the gene Ag1 from ‘Lloyd George’. The widespread use of Ag1 to control aphids led to the appearance of a resistance-breaking biotype in British Columbia, Canada, in 1990. Our objective was to identify biotypes of A. agathonica present in the commercial red raspberry production region of southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington and determine what sources of resistance may still be effective against this pest. We collected 12 aphid isolates and screened them against 15 raspberry cultivars and four selections. Although it has been widely believed that only two biotypes (regular and Ag1-breaking) of A. agathonica were present in the region, we identified six distinct biotypes and characterized them by their ability or inability to colonize a differential set of raspberry cultivars. This has confirmed the loss of previously recognized and unrecognized sources of resistance in some cultivars. The data also support the presence of a seventh biotype that has not yet been observed. In addition, we confirmed resistance from three sources of wild North American red raspberries that hold up to each of these biotypes. Our results will serve as a guide for future efforts to characterize the prevalence of different aphid biotypes in the region and the identification of new sources of resistance for breeding.

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Broad geographic sampling and DNA barcoding do not support the presence of Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Clitellata: Glossiphoniidae) in North America

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.4671.1.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4671 (1) ◽

pp. 1-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

RAFAEL EIJI IWAMA ◽

ALEJANDRO OCEGUERA-FIGUEROA ◽

DANIELLE DE CARLE ◽

CLAIRE MANGLICMOT ◽

CHRISTER ERSÉUS ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

North American ◽

Dorsal Surface ◽

Genetic Distances ◽

The Body ◽

Recent Analysis ◽

Intraspecific Divergence ◽

Geographic Boundaries ◽

The Usa ◽

Taxonomic Confusion

The description of Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) has emphasized the presence of a nuchal, chitinous scute located on the dorsal surface in the first third of the body as the diagnostic character for the species. Historically, identifications of species of Helobdella have relied heavily on this character and, as a result, Helobdella stagnalis has been reported from an inordinately broad geographic range, including Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. In addition to a few earlier investigations, a recent analysis showed that great genetic distances (orders of magnitude greater than previous estimations of intraspecific divergence in leeches) are present between scute-bearing specimens identified as H. stagnalis from Europe and North America, implying that H. stagnalis does not occur in North America. The present study expands the geographic boundaries of taxon sampling for both European and North American taxa, and re-examines the phylogenetic relationships and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) variation within scute-bearing species of the genus Helobdella. Our analyses include specimens putatively identified as “Helobdella stagnalis” from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, England, France, Italy, Slovenia, Turkey, Russia, and Iran, as well as numerous localities covering Canada and the USA. Our results corroborate previous studies in that European and west Asian specimens form a clade, including the neotype, which is separate from North American taxa. To alleviate future taxonomic confusion, we redescribe H. stagnalis and designate a neotype from the inferred type locality. The designation of a neotype stabilizes the taxonomy of scute-bearing leeches of the genus Helobdella and enables us to definitively correct erroneous identifications reported in previous studies. We also note that at least four lineages of scute-bearing, North American species of Helobdella lack formal descriptions.

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