the name be entered into the species database as a synonym of the name under which it was listed. The proposal was based on one study that relied on only a limited number of museum and zoo samples that may not have been representative of the wild population, and a call for further fieldwork was made. Earlier, two studies had sequenced the mDNA of the Indian gray wolf and found that it is basal to all other extant Canis lupus haplotypes apart from the older-lineage Himalayan wolf. Later studies compared these sequences against worldwide wolf sequences and confirmed this basal position. One study, based on a fossil record, estimated that the divergence between the coyote and the wolf lineages occurred 1 million years ago and with an assumed wolf mutation rate, estimated that the divergence of the Indian gray wolf from the wolf/dog ancestor occurred 400,000 years ago. Another study, which expressed concerns about the earlier study, gave an estimate of 270,000 years ago. The Indian gray wolf is endangered and its population is estimated at 2,000-3,000. It resembles C. l. pallipes in its outer appearance (morphological features) and its social/reproductive behavior, but it is smaller in size. It is genetically distinct from C. l. pallipes. These findings suggest that the Indian gray wolf is not the pallipes found in the Middle East and Central Asia. It was therefore proposed that the Indian gray wolf be reclassified as a separate species Canis indica. In 2016, a study of the mDNA of both modern and ancient wolves indicated that the Indian gray wolf and the Himalayan wolf were genetically basal when compared with all other gray wolves. In 2021, a study compared both the mitochondrial DNA and the nuclear DNA (from the cell nucleus) from the wolves of the Himalayas with those of the wolves from the lowlands of the Indian subcontinent. The genomic analyses indicate that the Himalayan wolf and the Indian lowland wolf were genetically distinct from one another. These wolves were also genetically distinct from – and genetically basal to – the other wolf populations across the northern hemisphere. These other wolves form a single mitochondrial clade, indicating that they originated from a single expansion from one region within the last 100,000 years. However, the nuclear analysis indicated that the Indian lowland wolf and the Himalayan wolf had separated from this lineage around 200,000 years ago, with the