: The differences between the common Jackal and the Ibie'sh Jackal are so stark
: that it's clear that, even though they share a common ancestry, they are
: at best members of the same family, and possibly are only of the same
: order. They are clearly not of the same genus, much less of the same
: species.

Actually, I take that back. The Ibie'sh Jackals probably don't even qualify as being of the same order as the common Jackal, as even within the same order you rarely get something so radical as the avian-like head of the common Jackal and the clearly lizard-like head of the Ibie'sh Jackal. Examples of taxonomic orders in the order Mammalia are Carnivora (canids, felids, pinnipeds, mustelids, etc.), Primates, Rodentia, Lagomorphs (rabbits and pikas), and Perissodactyla (the odd-toed ungulates, eg., horses, tapirs, and rhinos). The Ibie'sh Jackals are so radically different in appearance that even being of the same order as the common Jackal is a stretch. They may only qualify as being of the same class, and the similar body structure from the neck down is just a lucky instance of convergent evolution, like the grey wolf and thylacine (the latter a marsupial and thus not even remotely a canid). Of course, we wouldn't have the difficulty in trying to shoehorn the Ibie'sh Jackals into the fiction in a sensible manner if 343I had just left well enough alone and had them look like regular Jackals.