Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 23 January 2025. Extinct species of canine mammal For the fictional creature in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, see Direwolf (Game of Thrones). For other uses, see Dire wolf (disambiguation). Dire wolf Temporal range: Late Pleistocene – early Holocene (125,000–9,500 years ago) Pre๊ ๊ O S D C P ...
The adult skull was small and assumed to be a female, as it did not differ in size to an extant female wolf skull from northern Siberia. [42] Another study of the Lake Taimyr wolf found that its comparatively small size and characters of the cheekteeth and skull raised the possibility that it might have been a domesticated or semi-domesticated ...
Epicyon had a massive head and powerful jaws that were well adapted for bone-crushing, with enlarged fourth premolars like some hyenas, giving its skull a lion-like shape rather than having a skull similar in shape to that of a wolf; the adaptation would have allowed Epicyon to scavenge as well as hunt, giving it access to the nutritious marrow other contemporary carnivores couldn't access.
True members of Canis, namely the gray wolf and coyote, likely only arrived in the New World during the Late Pleistocene, where their dietary flexibility and/or ability to hybridize with other canids allowed them to survive the Quaternary extinction event, unlike the dire wolf. [14] Xenocyon (strange wolf) is an extinct subgenus of Canis. [15]
In comparison with the Beringian wolf, the more southerly occurring dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) was the same size but heavier and with a more robust skull and dentition. The unique adaptation of the skull and dentition of the Beringian wolf allowed it to produce relatively large bite forces, grapple with large struggling prey, and therefore made ...
The dire wolf shared its habitat with the gray wolf, but became extinct in a large-scale extinction event that occurred around 11,500 years ago. It may have been more of a scavenger than a hunter; its molars appear to be adapted for crushing bones and it may have gone extinct as a result of the extinction of the large herbivorous animals on ...
† Dire wolf [31] † Aenocyon dirus: Over 4.000 individuals A large wolf-like carnivore, the dire wolf was the most common predator found in the tar pits of La Brea, outnumbering the slightly smaller grey wolf over 100-fold. They could reach a weight of approximately 68 kg (150 lb).
The long-term isolation of the dire wolf lineage implies that other American fossil taxa, including C. armbrusteri and C. edwardii, may also belong to the dire wolf's lineage. [13] In the 2024 study, the Armbruster's wolf is considered as a species of Aenocyon , while C. edwardii is considered more closely related to the modern coyote .