Dire Wolf
The Dire Wolf is an extinct North American species of wolf which was a great deal larger than our wolves of present day.
For about 100,000 years it lived alongside its cousins, the Gray Wolves, although they are not directly linked.
The Dire Wolf was much larger than the Gray Wolf, and in fact was the largest living wild canine. It averaged about 5 feet long and weight about 175 pounds.
Despite their many similarities in appearance, there were many and vast differences between the two species.
Dire Wolf
The legs of the Dire Wolf were far shorter in comparison to its body than that of the gray wolf. This means that it would have been able to run poorly and sustain speeds for a shorter time.
Probably the Dire wolf was a scavenger, or hunted in packs for much larger prey.
The Dire Wolf had a great deal larger head, but a much smaller brain than the gray wolf also, and it has immense teeth, which researcher suppose the Dire Wolf may have used crush bone.
About 300,000 years ago Gray Wolf crossed into North America using the land bridge provided by the Bering Strait.
Sometime later, about 1000000 years ago, the Dire Wolf also made his appearance in America.
Then about 16,000 years ago near the end of the last Ice Age, and about the time of the arrival of humans in North America, most of the large mammals the Dire Wolf used for prey began to die out.
By 10,000 years ago, the large mammals and the Dire Wolf were extinct, or so it was supposed, however, fossils found in the state of Arkansas in the US, suggest that they lived on, in what is known as a relic population, and were still alive 4000 years ago.
Find out more about the Dire Wolf over at Wikipedia »
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why dosent it says more about the extinction
i know
hey i love wolf
I think it’s very cool!!!
i think this stuff is very interesting and very cool to study. i wish the Dire Wolf was still around, so i can see it in person and study it in it’s natural habitat.
I think wolves are extreamly cool and how they think it is amayzing but prehistoric wolves are so much different its weird but cool on evolotion.
and i have a question that i keep thinking about in my head. why did the Dire Wolf die off and it’s cousin the gray wolf get to live through the ice age? and i know the Dire Wolves diet was on large animals, but why couldn’t they adapt to the smaller animals such as deer, rabbit and bears?
the dire wolf died of lac of food hunted and enimies
this was very helpful information for my biology class X3 and very interesting
i wish it said more on the extinction, but Kayla has a point, why couldm’t the dire wolf adapt? why couldn’t it start eating smaller prey like deer and rabbit? Was the dire wolf such a proud creature that it had to die out in its glory then and not live to today… Quite frankly we might never know, but if it were alive today it would cause a lot of havoc… could you imagine a huge freaking wolf walking down your road and just kinda give you the evil eye? lol
I wish dire wolves wern’t extict. They are so cool. They have teeth as strong as steel.
save the wolves and if u agree send me messages to my email its alexchurch484@yahoo.com and these wolves like the gray wolf and timber wolf and many more like them are being hunted everyone day for no good reason at all listin i love wolves more then the next guy because my past is to love them im native american and white i just hate to see them die and hear about it go to savethewolves.com and send a letter i sent one and obama sent a letter of all the reason why he should not stop obama and tell him to take the wolf hunting off his list and put sarah palin in her place laST year in alsaka and hunted down 100s of wolves moms dads and as well little pups almost to there last species of wolf please write me and lets STOP IT NOW.
for those of you questioning why the Dire Wolf died out, look at it this way, it wasn’t incredibly smart and even though it was large and strong enough to take down whatever it wanted, it wasn’t as fast, as agile as it’s cousins, the Gray Wolves, therefore, it would not have been able to keep up with healty Elk, Deer, Rabbits…Bears..well..aren’t very fast compared to Wolves anyway, but still, you’re talking about prehistoric animals, a small group of Bears were probably too much of a headache to deal with, let alone wolf/bear relationships nowadays. As beautiful and aggressive looking these creatures probably were, let’s face it, they just didnt have the right skills to adapt and survive…obviously. if they were a bit faster, a bit smarter( or at least smart enough to avoid humankind in it’s growth ie: ALL of the years man has gone on mass hunts for wolves, in fear of losing cattle, farm animals, etc.), you might have been able to still see them walking proud today..
if the dire wolf stayed alive for a little while longer he would have adapted to the enviornment. i think they werent smart enough to adapt fast enough.
Adaption isn’t based on intelligence. It’s based on genetic development, anything adapted has to be genetically passed on. But I agree that they could have adapted, it was most likely a combination of large prey going extinct and the large amounts found in tar pits.
your not the only one
to all of you guys that would like the dire wolf to still exist, just think a moment- what if every animal that was extinct was still alive. 60 foot megladon sharks, t rex dinosaurs, pterodactyls, the list goes on!! Guess what would be a delightful snack for these large meat eating creatures??
Yup, you guessed it!! YOU! So the next time you want to preserve the loggerhead or cute bunny rabbit, think how cuddly they would be if they had six inch fangs and poisonous barbs. Extension has its purpose in our world and that is to protect mankind for the future.
Wait…you think extinction is there to protect mankind? How human of you. No extinction is there to say you didn’t make the grade. These gray wolves had a better set of traits than you dire wolves did.
Yes I would love to see Dire Wolves, I would love to see mastodons and mammoths, And I would love to see Saber Tooth Cats and Cave Lions. But I don’t think they were wiped out for our benefit.
they could have had very little fur or did not have a water protective under coat and when the ice age came it just wiped some of them out or a parasite like a worm like the kind that dogs get could have played part like if they were more deadly towards them than the gray wolf
I really wanted a Dire Wolf like the Starks!!!!! I am so hurt.
I rather have saber tooth