Sequence analysis of 112 southeastern US coyotes revealed 24 unique haplotypes. One haplotype was highly divergent from all other coyote haplotypes with 24-30 bp differences in 394-400 bp, and an average divergence of 8.7%. The sequence did not match any canid sequence in Gen- Bank, and we refer to it as la24. This haplotype is more closely related to haplotypes of grey wolves, differing by 6-11 bp and an average divergence of 2.2%. We compared the divergent sequence found in coyotes to those found in a monophyletic group of dogs, designated clade I (Fig. 1, Vilˆ et al. 1999). This group probably represents the earliest radiation of domestic dog (Vilˆ et al . 1999). The domestic dogs in this clade differ from la24 by 2-5 bp and have an average divergence of 0.8%.
“This group probably represents the earliest radiation of domestic dog”
And that’s like forever ago, genetically speaking and irrelevant to the discussion of the current, apparently unkillable ‘coydog’ mythos.
98% of our genes match with chimps.
So what?
:)