Dire Wolf Profile by Yappartist on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Aenocyon dirus

Ice Age North America, more appropriately referred to as Late Pleistocene North America, boasts a plethora of iconic animals. From the woolly mammoth to the saber-toothed cat, these creatures have captured the global public's imagination.

However, often overlooked is one of the most numerous predators found in the fossil record: the Dire Wolf, scientifically known as Aenocyon dirus. This awe-inspiring canine reigned over the Americas for an astonishing 250,000 years.

These impressive wolves gained fame through the Game of Thrones series as the symbol of House Stark, depicted as massive versions of gray wolves that served as companions to characters in the show.

This understanding of them as massive versions of gray wolves actually persisted in the scientific community for many years. However, only recently have the secrets of this ancient canine begun to be unraveled.

History of Discovery:

The dire wolf has a complex and intriguing history. In 1854, Francis A. Linck, a fossil collector, was prospecting for fossils near his hometown of Evansville, Indiana. Amidst the mud and sediment, he stumbled upon a fragment of a jaw—specifically, a canine jaw. Uncertain about its nature, he sent it to Joseph Leidy, a preeminent American naturalist and paleontologist of the time.

Leidy examined the jaw and confirmed that it indeed belonged to a canid, naming it Canis primaevus, signifying the primitive dog.

Three years later, Leidy discovered similar remains of C. primaevus in Nebraska, consisting of teeth and vertebra fragments. He subsequently designated these remains as Canis dirus, drawing from the Greek word "dirus," meaning "frightful," combined with "canis," referring to dog or wolf—hence, the frightful wolf. The original fossils of C. primaevus were later reassigned to C. indianensis. Then, in 1876, another canine fossil was unearthed in Mississippi, labeled C. mississippiensis by zoologist and paleontologist Joel A. Allen. Allen initially attributed it to C. dirus until better comparisons could be made.

Fast-forward to 1908, when paleontologist John C. Merriam was prospecting near an oil well in what was then the small town of Los Angeles. It was here that a significant paleontological discovery was made. Merriam found remains of a large wolf attributed to C. dirus, constituting the first nearly complete specimen found at the Rancho La Brea site.

A decade later, after reviewing numerous specimens (with dire wolves being the most abundant predator at La Brea), Merriam proposed elevating C. dirus to its own distinct species: Aenocyon dirus. This appellation, derived from the Greek words "Aeno" meaning terrible and "cyon" meaning wolf, translates to "Terrible Frightful Wolf."

At the time, the paleontological community rejected this proposition, and Aenocyon dirus was recognized as a synonym of Canis dirus. Then, in 1984, Finnish Paleontologist Björn Kurtén merged all the species described by Leidy and Allen into C. dirus.

Unbeknownst to Merriam, more than a century later, his designation for these formidable canines would be resurrected.

Two Lines: Unraveling the Origins of the Frightful Canine:

With the emergence of phylogenetics in the 1980s, paleontologists endeavored to trace the evolutionary lineage of Dire Wolves.

Numerous theories abounded, positing that these wolves were ancestral to gray wolves that became massive in the Americas, a sister lineage to the red wolf, or robust descendants of coyotes.

However, by the 2010s, the prevailing theory, initially proposed in 1979, gained traction among paleontologists. In a study led by Xianoning Wang, Richard Tedford, and Ron Nowak, it was suggested that the Dire Wolf evolved from C. armbrusteri—a relatively large Canid dating back to the mid-Pliocene in North America. Morphological similarities between these species indicated that dire wolves likely succeeded C. armbrusteri around 225-250,000 years ago.

Nonetheless, DNA evidence would eventually challenge this perspective.

In 1992, an attempt was made to extract DNA from La Brea specimens, but the unique preservation conditions of the tar pits rendered the DNA nonexistent. The asphalt and fossil preservation processes eradicated all DNA traces within the bones.

Then, in 2021, nuclear DNA was successfully extracted from specimens across North America, yielding astonishing results that surprised many Pleistocene and dire wolf researchers. Contrary to expectations, dire wolves were not closely related to gray wolves, Canis armbrusteri, or even the Canis genus.

The study revealed that ancestral dire wolves arrived in America around 5,700,000 years ago, during a period when the continent was isolated from Eurasia. In contrast, wolves, jackals, dholes, and coyotes evolved independently in Eurasia.

Genetically, African jackals emerged as the closest kin to dire wolves among modern canines, rather than gray wolves. Morphological resemblances between dire wolves and gray wolves were attributed to convergent evolution.

The question of whether C. armbrusteri is an ancestor of the dire wolf remains uncertain, awaiting future studies to illuminate this aspect.

Given this revelation, the label "Canis" no longer appropriately applies to the dire wolf. Consequently, researchers proposed a revival of John Merriam's appellation "Aenocyon." Thus, C. dirus was once again recognized as Aenocyon dirus.

Description:

As previously mentioned, dire wolves shared morphological similarities with gray wolves, approximating the size of creatures like Great Plains Wolves or Yukon Wolves. Nonetheless, they possessed a more robust build, larger shearing teeth (carnassials), and a sturdier skull overall. Their metacarpals and metatarsals were slightly smaller.

On average, their weight ranged from 140 to 180 pounds, with some specimens surpassing 200 pounds, and they stood about 2.5 to 3.1 feet tall at the shoulders.

Regarding appearance, the color of their fur remains a mystery due to the lack of preserved hair samples. However, most paleontologists and paleoartists believe that dire wolves likely exhibited distinct traits, differing from the appearance of gray wolves or coyotes due to their separate evolution on distinct continents.

Behavior and Habitat:

Dire wolves ranged across multiple American and even eastern Asian habitats. From the Alaskan mammoth steppes to the temperate forests of Mexico and California, the scrub and canyonlands of Arizona and Nevada, and the grasslands and open woodlands of the Dakotas and Wyoming, these wolves ruled a myriad of environments.

Behaviorally, extrapolations from fossils found in various locations, including La Brea, suggest that their hunting behavior resembled that of pack-hunting canids. However, these predators targeted larger prey.

During the Pleistocene epoch, the landscape teemed with a variety of herbivores, such as Ancient Bison, Giant Bison, Camelops, multiple horse species, and pronghorn antelopes. Additionally, mammoths and mastodons graced the American terrain from the great plains to temperate forests of North America. Dire wolves shared this ecosystem with other formidable predators, including the saber-toothed cat Smilodon, the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium, the American Lion, and the giant short-faced bear.

The apex of their reign coincided with the presence of gray wolves who at the time of the late ice age were proportionally more robust. However, the subject of Pleistocene Wolves warrants its own profile.

Extinction:

Like numerous megafaunal mammals at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, Dire Wolves fell victim to the minor extinction event that decimated much of the megafaunal diversity in the Americas.

The cause of their extinction remains a subject of debate, with some attributing it to climate change, others to human activity, and some suggesting a combination of both. Regardless of the cause, approximately 80% of megafaunal diversity in the Americas succumbed to this event. Majestic creatures like mammoths, awe-inspiring saber-toothed cats, and of course, the dire wolves were among the megafaunal casualties.

However, dire wolves fared comparatively better than many predators of their time, persisting until approximately 9,500 years ago. Their relatively smaller size, compared to other apex predators, might have contributed to their prolonged survival. Another factor potentially influencing their extinction was the influx of gray wolves into the Americas through the Bering land bridge, which intensified competition for resources. As smaller and more numerous canids gained dominance over prey, the formidable dire wolves eventually met the same fate as their rivals.

With the extinction of these predators, only gray wolves remain as the largest canines in North America. Nevertheless, the legacy of the dire wolf lives on in museum collections worldwide. The discovery of DNA and the reclassification of these wolves as distinct from the Canis genus underscores the fact that even the most iconic Ice Age megafauna continue to harbor untold secrets awaiting revelation.

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Good to get back to profiles and I thought I'd show the fruits of both my and mainly DemonHunterZT2 's labor these past few months.

I got a Dire Wolf made for Season 2 of PMP, and I basically told him to take a canid model, make it look like a dire wolf and this is the result. I love the look of these guys and he did just an outstanding job. In terms of prey, I decided to show an animal not often shown in predation scenes: Camelops.

So will this be in PMP? Obviously. As far as scenes go, I'm still planning them out, so you probably won't see these guys this year. That and I'm moving in October and am still putting together parts of ep6. I've got a a basic outline done for S2 and some preliminary shots, but nothing choreographed or even written out in full yet.

In the meantime, hope you guys enjoy this profile!

Models and Skins by DemonHunterZT2 : Awesome Birds - The ZT2 Round TableFrom Past Meets Present: Past Meets Present - Page 5 - The ZT2 Round Table