A Lineage That Branched Off Before Europe Had Wolves
A 2021 study published in the journal Molecular Ecology placed the Indian wolf's divergence from the broader wolf lineage at somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 years ago. That predates the arrival of grey wolves in Europe and North America. Every wolf you have seen in a documentary about Yellowstone or the Arctic belongs to a lineage that split from a common ancestor far more recently than the Indian wolf did. Canis lupus pallipes, the subspecies name, understates the case. Several researchers have argued the Indian wolf is distinct enough to warrant full species status, Canis indica, though that debate is ongoing in the scientific literature.
