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Dire wolf remains have been radiocarbon dated to 8,200 YBP from Whitewater Draw in Arizona, [108] [112] though one author has stated that radiocarbon dating of bone carbonate is unreliable. [19] All of these dates are uncalibrated and the actual age of the remains is likely older.
An artistic rendition of two possible appearances of the dire wolf, one based on a North American origin (left) and the other on a South American origin (right) [2] Canis dirus made its appearance in South America in the late Pleistocene, and seems to have been restricted to the north and west coasts.
The team excavated 200 large bones of large animals which included American cheetah, bison, horses and gray wolf, as well as, innumerable microfossils of birds and reptiles. [4] The cave remains at temperatures below 10 °C (50 °F) and has 98% humidity which is conducive for the preservation of viable genetic material for analysis.
Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, and in the arid savannah of South America. The largest collection of dire wolf fossils comes from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles ; its latest remains date from 9,440 years ago.
Remains of gray foxes make up 0.48% of the La Brea predator fauna. A baculum from the pits suggests that these foxes were smaller in the past. Gray wolf [31] [35] Canis lupus: Modern wolves are notably rarer at La Brea than the slightly larger dire wolves. One particular fossil preserves the femur of a wolf that survived a traumatic injury.
The fossil remains of a juvenile male Mammut americanum (SDNHM 49926) were discovered in stratigraphic layer Bed E, including 2 tusks, 3 molars, 4 vertebrae, 16 ribs, 2 phalanx bones, 2 sesamoids and over 300 other bone fragments. [1] Remains of dire wolf, horse, camel, mammoth and ground sloth were also found. [1]
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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 5.7 million years ago, with morphological similarities with the grey wolf being convergent evolution. The study's findings are consistent with the previously proposed taxonomic classification of the ...