The dire wolf is an extinct canine the dire wolf lived in the americas with a single record also known from east asia during the Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs
Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some foresty mountain areas of North America, the arid savanna of South America and the meadows of Eastern Asia
The skull could reach up to 12 inches in length and its teeth were larger and more robust than today's gray wolves. In terms of body size, the dire wolf was on average the size of the largest gray wolves which have a shoulder height of 37-38 inches and a body length of 69-70 inches
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Which The dire wolf was about the same size as the largest modern Gray wolf the Yukon Wolf and the north western. Aenocyon dirus weighed on average 60 kilograms and A. d. dirus was on average 68 kg
Its skull and dentition matched those of C. lupus, but its teeth were larger with greater shearing ability, and its bite force at the canine tooth was stronger than any known Canis species
These characteristics are thought to be adaptations for preying on Late Pleistocene mega herbivores, and in North America its prey is known to have included horses, mastodons, bison and camel
Its extinction occurred during the quaternary extinction along with its main prey species. Its reliance on mega herbivores has been proposed as the cause of its extinction, along with climate change and competition with other species or a combination of those factors
They went extinct 9,500 years ago
The average dire wolf proportions were similar to those of two modern North American wolves: the Yukon Wolf and the North Western Wolf
The largest northern wolves today have a shoulder height of up to 38 in and a body length of 69 in Some dire wolf specimens from Rancho La Brea are smaller than this, and some are larger
The dire wolf had smaller feet and a larger head when it was compared with a northern wolf of the same body size the skull length could reach up to 310 mm or longer
Geographic differences in dire wolves were not detected until 1984, when a study of skeletal remains showed differences in a few cranio-dental features and limb proportions between specimens from California and Mexico
Similarly, the dire wolf was a hyper carnivore, 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
Access into northern North America was blocked by the Glaciation in Wisconsin the fossil evidence from the Americas points to the extinction mainly of large animals, termed Pleistocene megafauna near the end of the last glaciation
Coastal southern California from 60,000 YBP to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was cooler and with a more balanced supply of moisture than today
During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mean annual temperature decreased from 11 °C down to 5 °C degrees, and annual precipitation had decreased from 100 cm down to 45 cm
This region was unaffected by the climatic effects of the Wisconsin glaciation and is thought to have been an Ice Age refugium to animals and cold-sensitive plants
A range of animal and plant specimens that became entrapped and were then preserved in tar pits have been removed and studied so that researchers can learn about the past
A large number of dire wolf fossils have been recovered from the La Brea tar pits Over 200,000 specimens have been recovered from the tar pits with the remains ranging from the smilodon to squirrels, invertebrates, and plants
Just before the appearance of the dire wolf, North America was invaded by the Canis sub genus xenocyon which was an ancestor of the Asian dhole and the African hunting dog that was as large as the dire wolf and more hypercarnivorous
After arriving to eastern Eurasiathe dire wolf would have likely faced competition from the area's most dominant, widespread predator, the eastern subspecies of Cave Hyena Competition with this species may have kept Eurasian dire wolf populations very low, leading to the paucity of dire wolf fossil remains in this otherwise well-studied fossil fauna
During the QEE around 12,700 YBP, 90 genera of mammals weighing over 44 kilograms became extinctThe extinction of the large carnivores and scavengers is thought to have been caused by the extinction of the megaherbivore prey upon which they depended
One study proposes that several extinction models should be investigated because so little is known about the biogeography of the dire wolf and its potential competitors and prey, nor how all these species interacted and responded to the environmental changes that occurred at the time of extinction
Ancient DNA and radiocarbon data indicate that local genetic populations were replaced by others within the same species or by others within the same genus Both the dire wolf and the Beringian wolf went extinct in North America, leaving only the less carnivorous and more gracile form of the wolf to thrive which may have outcompeted the dire wolf
Ancient DNA and radiocarbon data indicate that local genetic populations were replaced by others within the same species or by others within the same genus Both the dire wolf and the Beringian wolf went extinct in North America, leaving only the less carnivorous and more gracile form of the wolf to thrive which may have outcompeted the dire wolf
Gray wolves and coyotes may have survived due to their ability to hybridize with other canids such as the domestic dog to acquire traits that resist diseases brought by taxa arriving from Eurasia. Reproductive isolation may have prevented the dire wolf from acquiring these traits
A 2023 study documented a high degree of Subchondral Defects in joint surfaces of dire wolf and Smilodon specimens from the La Brea Tar pits that resembled a disease I can't spell lol As modern dogs with this disease are inbred the researchers suggested this would have been the case for the prehistoric species as well as they approached extinction, but cautioned that more research was needed to determine if this was also the case in specimens from other parts of the Americas
