35 Facts About Dire wolf

The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs.

Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, the arid savanna of South America, and the steppes of eastern Asia.

Dire wolf fossils have rarely been found north of 42°N latitude; there have been only five unconfirmed reports above this latitude.

Dire wolf was about the same size as the largest modern gray wolves : the Yukon wolf and the northwestern wolf.

In 1918, after studying these fossils, Merriam proposed consolidating their names under the separate genus Aenocyon to become Aenocyon dirus, but at that time not everyone agreed with this extinct Dire wolf being placed in a new genus separate from the genus Canis.

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In 2021, a DNA study found the dire wolf to be a highly divergent lineage when compared with the extant wolf-like canines, and this finding is consistent with the previously proposed taxonomic classification of the dire wolf as genus Aenocyon as proposed by Merriam in 1918.

The second theory is based on DNA evidence, which indicates the dire wolf arose from an ancestral lineage that originated in the Americas and was separate from genus Canis.

DNA evidence indicates the dire wolf arose from an ancestral lineage that originated in the Americas and was separate to genus Canis.

The sequences indicate the dire wolf to be a highly divergent lineage which last shared a most recent common ancestor with the wolf-like canines 5.

Age of most dire wolf localities is determined solely by biostratigraphy, but biostratigraphy is an unreliable indicator within asphalt deposits.

Average dire wolf proportions were similar to those of two modern North American wolves: the Yukon wolf and the Northwestern wolf.

Dire wolf had smaller feet and a larger head when compared with a northern wolf of the same body size.

Ecological factors such as habitat type, climate, prey specialization, and predatory competition have been shown to greatly influence gray Dire wolf craniodental plasticity, which is an adaptation of the cranium and teeth due to the influences of the environment.

Similarly, the dire wolf was a hypercarnivore, with a skull and dentition adapted for hunting large and struggling prey; the shape of its skull and snout changed across time, and changes in the size of its body have been correlated with climate fluctuations.

The dire wolf has been made famous because of the large number of its fossils recovered there.

Study of isotope data of La Brea dire wolf fossils dated 10,000YBP provides evidence that the horse was an important prey species at the time, and that sloth, mastodon, bison, and camel were less common in the dire wolf diet.

When compared with the dentition of genus Canis members, the dire wolf was considered the most evolutionary derived wolf-like species in the Americas.

The morphology of the dire wolf was similar to that of its living relatives, and assuming that the dire wolf was a social hunter, then its high bite force relative to living canids suggests that it preyed on relatively large animals.

Upper dentition was the same except that the dire wolf had larger dimensions, and the P4 had a relatively larger, more massive blade that enhanced slicing ability at the carnassial.

The jaw of the dire wolf had a relatively broader and more massive temporalis muscle, able to generate slightly more bite force than the gray wolf.

The dire wolf canines had greater bending strength than those of living canids of equivalent size and were similar to those of hyenas and felids.

All these differences indicate that the dire wolf was able to deliver stronger bites than the gray wolf, and with its flexible and more rounded canines was better adapted for struggling with its prey.

Stable isotope analysis of dire wolf bones provides evidence that they had a preference for consuming ruminants such as bison rather than other herbivores but moved to other prey when food became scarce, and occasionally scavenged on beached whales along the Pacific coast when available.

The dire wolf broke its incisors more often when compared to the modern gray wolf; thus, it has been proposed that the dire wolf used its incisors more closely to the bone when feeding.

The dorsoventrally weak symphyseal region of the dire wolf indicates that it delivered shallow bites similar to its modern relatives and was therefore a pack hunter.

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The fact that the incidence of fracture for the dire wolf reduced in frequency in the Late Pleistocene to that of its modern relatives suggests that reduced competition had allowed the dire wolf to return to a feeding behavior involving a lower amount of bone consumption, a behavior for which it was best suited.

Dire wolf wolves dated 17,900YBP showed all of these features, which indicates food stress.

Dire wolf wolves dated 28,000YBP showed to a degree many of these features but were the largest wolves studied, and it was proposed that these wolves were suffering from food stress and that wolves earlier than this date were even bigger in size.

Dire wolf remains are absent north of the 42°Nlatitude in North America, therefore, this region would have been available for Beringian wolves to expand south along the glacier line.

Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, the arid savannah of South America, and the steppes of eastern Asia.

Dire wolf remains are not often found at high latitudes in North America.

Localities in Mexico where dire wolf remains have been collected include ElCedazo in Aguascalientes, Comondu Municipality in Baja California Sur, ElCedral in San Luis Potosi, ElTajo Quarry near Tequixquiac, state of Mexico, Valsequillo in Puebla, Lago de Chapala in Jalisco, Loltun Cave in Yucatan, Potrecito in Sinaloa, San Josecito Cave near Aramberri in Nuevo Leon and Terapa in Sonora.

In 2020, a fossil mandible from a dire wolf was found in the vicinity of Harbin, northeastern China.

Dire wolf remains having the youngest geological ages are dated at 9,440YBP at Brynjulfson Cave, Boone County, Missouri, 9,860YBP at Rancho La Brea, California, and 10,690YBP at La Mirada, California.

Dire wolf remains have been radiocarbon dated to 8,200YBP from Whitewater Draw in Arizona, However, one author has stated that radiocarbon dating of bone carbonate is unreliable.