#canis dirus

Dire wolves (red) fight off gray wolves for dibs on a bison kill. Painting by Mauricio Anton. 

The legendary dire wolf may not have been a wolf at all

One of North America’s most famous ancient predators—and a favorite of Game of Thrones fans—emerged as mysteriously as it disappeared. Dire wolves, which died out with mammoths and saber-toothed cats at the end of the last ice age, were long thought to be close cousins of gray wolves. Now, the first analysis of dire wolf DNA finds they instead traveled a lonely evolutionary path: They are so different from other wolves, coyotes, and dogs that they don’t belong in the genus that includes these animals. Instead, researchers argue, they need an entirely new scientific classification.

Archaeologists know dire wolves lived in North America from about 250,000 to 13,000 years ago. They were about 20% bigger than today’s gray wolves—the size of their skeletons often gives them away—and, like other wolves, they probably traveled in packs, hunting down bison, ancient horses, and perhaps even small mammoths and mastodons.

But that’s where most knowledge stops. Because the skeletons of dire wolves are similar to those of gray wolves, the two animals were considered closely related. Scientists have long classified dire wolves as Canis dirus, putting them in the same genus as gray wolves, coyotes, and dogs. But the one thing that could have sealed the deal—dire wolf DNA—had been broken down by the tar of the pits.

Fellow House Stark fans: Another reason to be appreciative of Canada. 🇨🇦

Apparently direwolves roamed through Alberta during the Ice Age.

Canada now has its first dire wolf.

For the first time, a Canadian fossil has been confirmed as having come from the Ice Age predator featured in the TV series Game of Thrones. The specimen, from near Medicine Hat in southern Alberta, was tentatively identified decades ago, but a team from the Royal Ontario Museum used new technology to finally lock it down.

"It had never been fully described," said evolutionary biologist Ashley Reynolds, lead author of the paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. "This had never been done for this specimen."

The museum already had the specimen, they just never fully identified it.

It wasn't easy. The entire specimen, which is between 25,000 and 50,000 years old, consists of one jaw, badly crushed, with some remaining teeth.

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This dire wolf is the northernmost confirmed example of the species ever found. That's because in those days, most of what is now Canada was covered by a massive ice sheet.

Ah, an ice sheet. Probably a little like The Wall but one which was thousands of kilometers wide. 

But every now and then the ice retreated, opening up habitat from Yukon down through central and southeast Alberta and making way for an Ice Age bestiary that's hard to imagine on the rolling, grassy plains along the South Saskatchewan River, where the dire wolf was found.

There’s even a species name for direwolves: Canis dirus.

Medicine Hat, Alberta should consider making the direwolf the city sigil.

Fun Fact of the Week: A new study revealed that "Dire Wolves" weren't actually wolves at all and belonged to their own genus known as "Aenocyon Dirus" rather than "Canis Dirus."