Did the jackal (wild African dog) evolve independently or with some form of human domestication? The jackal is a wild dog species in Africa that feeds on carrion, much like the hyena. Pop science, as it were, would make us believe every dog species emerged as a result of human domestication. Was that the case for every dog species? Or might some have evolved independently? Another way to phrase this would be: Do wild dog species have a completely wild heritage, or did they branch off of some previously domesticated line?

This answer is just for African golden jackal evolution, but this website (sciencemag.org) explains that...

“...researchers compared genomewide DNA samples from jackals, gray wolves, and dogs. They found that African golden jackals diverged from coyotes and gray wolves some 1.3 million years ago...”.

Also, this Wikipedia article about _Canis arnensis_ (the Arno river dog) (I know that Wikipedia is unreliable but it had related helpful information) explains that...

“The Arno River dog has been described as a small jackal-like dog. Its anatomy and morphology relate it more to the modern golden jackal (Canis aureus) than to the larger Etruscan wolf of that time. It is probably the ancestor of modern jackals.”