Florida black wolf

Florida black wolf Temporal range: Holocene [1]
A captive specimen from New Orleans
Conservation status
Extinct  (unknown year)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Canidae
Subfamily:	Caninae
Genus:	Canis
Species:	C. rufus
Subspecies:	†C. r. floridanus
Trinomial name
†Canis rufus floridanus (Miller, 1912)
Synonyms [2]
List Canis floridanusMiller, 1912 [3] Canis lupus floridanus Canis lycaon americans Canis niger niger Young & Goldman, 1937

The Florida black wolf (Canis rufus floridanus) also known as the Florida wolf and the black wolf, is an extinct subspecies of red wolf that was native to the Southeastern United States.

Taxonomy

This wolf is recognized as a subspecies of Canis lupus in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World (2005). ^[2] William Bartram first wrote this wolf in his 1791 book Bartram'sTravels, calling it Lupus niger (black wolf).

Edward Alphonso Goldman was the first to classify red wolves and Florida black wolves as conspecific. Since the Florida black wolf was described first, its trinomial name became Canis niger niger, and other subspecies were placed under the species C. niger. In 1957, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature rejected the name Canis niger as Bartram didn't consistently use the principles of binomial nomenclature. As a result, the species name became Canis rufus, and the Florida black wolf's trinomial became Canis rufus floridanus. ^[4]

Currently, this canid is widely considered to be a subspecies of the red wolf Canis rufus ^[5] and that a variation in the red wolf's coloring led to the creation of the Florida black wolf. ^[6]

Description

This subspecies was the largest subspecies of red wolf, having a body length of 165 cm (65 in). ^[7] It had a distinctive black coat, and females had a white spot in the chest. ^[8]

References

1. Sherman, H. B. (1952). "A List and Bibliography of the Mammals of Florida, Living and Extinct". Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences. 15 (2): 90. ISSN   0015-3850. JSTOR   24313517.
2. Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 532–628. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
3. Miller, Gerrit S. Jr. (May 4, 1912). "The Names of Two North American Wolves". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . 25: 95.
4. Mech, L. David (2012-05-16). Wolf. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-307-81913-0.
5. Eriksen, John (October 20, 2017). Brevard County, Florida: A Short History to 1955. ASIN   B076H69FDW.
6. Denny, Lois (August 2004). Alsatian Shepalute's: A New Breed For A New Millennium. AuthorHouse. p. 42. ISBN   978-1418439224.
7. Young, Stanley P.; Goldman, Edward A. (1944). The wolves of North America. Vol. 2. New York City, NY: Dover Publications. pp. 481–483. ISBN   978-0-486-21193-0.
8. Harlan, Richard (1825). Fauna Americana: Being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals Inhabitating North America. Anthony Finley. ISBN   978-0-608-42011-0.