Name: Canis
lupus cristaldii.
Phonetic: Kay-niss lu-pus kris-tal-de.
Named By: Francesco Maria Angelici &
Lorenzo Rossi - 2018.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora,
Canidae, Canis, C. lupus.
Species: Canis lupus cristaldii.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: 105 centimetres long, 54.6 centimetres
high at the shoulder.
Known locations: Sicily.
Time period: End of the Pleistocene to Holocene.
Fossil representation: Remains of many individuals.
The
Sicilian wolf is a distinct sub species of the gray wolf with the
species designation Canis lupus cristaldii. The
Sicilian wolf was
similar to those known from Italy, though with lighter more tawny
coloured fur. The dark band across the forelimbs of the Italian
wolf was absent or at most faintly defined upon the Sicilian wolf.
The
extinction of the Sicilian wolf is directly attributable to human
activity. Initially this was a case of hunting the same animals that
the Sicilian wolf hunted until the point that prey animals began to
disappear from Sicily. Then later and often seen as dangerous and a
threat to livestock, wolves were persecuted further and actively
hunted in order to protect livestock. The last confirmed killing of a
Sicilian wolf took place at some point in the second half of the
twentieth century probably either 1920s or 1930s. Occasional
sightings of the Sicilian wolf continued into the middle decades of the
twentieth century, but no evidence for survival has been found, and
the Sicilian wolf is now presumed extinct.
The
Sicilian wolf was only confirmed as belonging to a distinct sub species
in 2018 when DNA samples extracted from teeth and skulls of
Sicilian wolves were studied and found to be very similar yet markedly
different to those samples taken from wolves from the Italy. Studies
of the DNA suggest that this divergence took place over thirteen
thousand years ago, which is also thought to be the last time that
Sicily was joined to mainland Italy via land bridge. This land bridge
disappeared towards the end of the Pleistocene when global temperatures
rose causing the ice sheets to melt and raise sea levels submerging
the land bridge. This caused the wolves on Sicily to be cut off from
those on the mainland. This limited the gene pool so that after
successive generations, a new sub species of wolf emerged.
Further reading
- A new subspecies of grey wolf (Carnivora, Canidae),
recently extinct, from Sicily, Italy. - Bollettino del Museo
Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona. 42: 3–15. - Francesco
Maria Angelici & Lorenzo Rossi - 2018.
- Biodiversity lost: The phylogenetic relationships of a complete
mitochondrial DNA genome sequenced from the extinct wolf population of
Sicily. - Mammalian Biology. 98: 1–10. - Stefano Reale,
EttoreRandi, ValentinaCumbo, IgnazioSammarco, FlorianaBonanno,
AntonioSpinnato & SalvatoreSeminara - 2019.