Dire Wolf By: Andrew Gendron

Introduction The Dire Wolf was most abundant during the Pleistocene period in North America. About 10,000 years ago the Dire Wolf went extinct. The first specimen of Dire Wolf was found by Francis A. Linck at the mouth of pigeon creek along the Ohio river near Evansville, Indiana in ,600 individual Dire Wolves have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits of California.

Habitat The dire wolf was an important large, late Pleistocene predator in North and South America, well adapted to preying on megaherbivores. Geographically widespread, Canis dirus is reported from 136 localities in North America from Alberta, Canada, southward and from three localities in South America (Muaco, Venezuela; Talara, Peru; and Tarija, Bolivia). The species lived in a variety of environments, from forested mountains to open grasslands and plains

Diet and size The average Dire Wolf was about 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and weighed about kilograms( pounds). The Dire Wolf preyed on large American herbivores, like Bison and ground sloth's.This animal would use its bulk and power to catch its prey rather than run their prey down with a long chase. The Dire Wolf’s teeth were just slightly larger than the Gray Wolf’s, The Dire Wolf’s legs were also shorter and more sturdier and there brain was smaller.

Why Did They Go Extinct? Why did these animals become extinct? The Dire Wolf skeleton is more stout than that of the Gray Wolf, suggesting an adaptation for power rather than speed. Most of its prey species were rather slow herbivorous animals that were not able to run very fast to escape predation. Scientists suspect that once those relatively slow- moving prey animals became extinct, the Dire Wolf may not have been able to hunt and capture swifter prey in order to survive.

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