I stumbled upon this interesting video, discussing what Dire Wolves may have looked like, how they interacted with humans, etc.
Summary:
And here's a tree:
--THE PAPER--
Perri, A.R., Mitchell, K.J., Mouton, A. et al. Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage. Nature (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x LINK: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03082-x
Summary:
- Dire Wolves are not anywhere related to Grey Wolves, but closely related to the South American canids and jackals, not wolves and dogs.
- Dire Wolf is now placed in its own genus, Aenocyon, which means "terrible wolf."
- Their bones are not any different than Grey Wolf bones, but DNA was extracted from these bones, hence now they're in their own genus. They had more robust teeth and broader, thicker limbs than Grey Wolves. They were around the same size as some of the larger Grey Wolves. It may have had short ears, short fur and may have somewhat resembled a hyena. (Note: Hyenas are NOT dogs.)
- Another reason why they resemble Grey Wolves is because of convergent evolution.
- We do not know what they look like. We can only speculate, but HodariNundu came up with his own version of what they may have looked like. Note how similar it looks to the South American canid called the Bush Dog. More studies are needed. This first one is on the implausible spectrum.
- This next one is probably more plausible. It closely resembles the Maned Wolf of South America. He also gave it rounded pupils like in Grey Foxes and Bush Dogs.
- Here's another speculation, by Mauricio Anton. In this case, he used either Dingos, Dholes or Simien Wolves for the colouration:
And here's a tree:
- There are two subspecies:
- Aenocyon dirus dirus
- Aenocyon dirus guildayi
- A. d. guildayi had shorter limbs and was found in the Southwest.
- A. d. dirus had longer limbs and was found east of the Continental Divide.
- Humans may have interacted with Dire Wolves.
- Dire Wolves became extinct because Grey Wolves were able to hybridize with Coyotes, were able to survive in harsher environments and may have had a wider variety of diets, such as eating large game, berries and insects. Dire Wolves mostly lived in temperate regions and wasn't a tundra creature.
--THE PAPER--
Perri, A.R., Mitchell, K.J., Mouton, A. et al. Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage. Nature (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x LINK: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03082-x
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