By RYOKO TAKEISHI/ Staff Writer
June 13, 2022 at 07:00 JST
The Japanese wolf, last seen in 1905, was a cross between a giant variant and an unknown variant, scientists said in a theory that differs from two existing hypotheses on the mysterious creature.
The team of researchers from the University of Yamanashi, the National Museum of Nature and Science and other institutions said their conclusion is based on ancient DNA studies and could settle the long-lasting controversy over the wolf.
According to one hypothesis, the giant wolf variant from the Asian mainland came to Japan, shrank in size and became the Japanese wolf.
The other hypothesis states that the Japanese wolf evolved independently from the giant wolf.
The latest theory is that the Japanese wolf was a hybrid of the giant wolf and an unknown variant that arrived in Japan after the giant wolf.
The Japanese wolf was 50 to 60 centimeters tall with a body about 80 to 110 cm long. It is believed to have gone extinct in the early 20th century.
The scientists analyzed DNA extracted from the remains of a giant wolf and a Japanese wolf, both found in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture.
Radiocarbon dating showed this giant wolf lived 35,000 years ago while the Japanese wolf lived 5,000 years ago during the Jomon Pottery Culture Period (c. 14500 B.C.-1000 B.C.).
The findings from the team’s analysis were compared with data on other wolf samples, including the Japanese wolf.
They found that the now-extinct giant wolf variant arrived in the Japanese archipelago from the Asian mainland between 57,000 and 35,000 years ago.
It was followed by the unknown wolf variant between 37,000 and 14,000 years ago. The unknown variant is believed to have descended from the giant wolves that stayed on the Asian mainland and the lineage of modern-day continental wolves.
The unknown wolf variant could have been relatively small in size.
The Japanese wolf, according to the team, descended from both the giant and unknown variants.
“It turned out the origins of the Japanese wolf followed a complicated evolutionary path that differs from either of the previous hypotheses,” said Takahiro Segawa, a leading author of the study. “Our cutting-edge ancient DNA analysis has allowed us to explore the mysteries of evolution that are difficult to solve by using fossil morphology alone.”
Segawa is a senior assistant professor of ancient DNA research with the University of Yamanashi.
The team’s research results were published in the online edition of Current Biology, a U.S. science journal, at (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.034).
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