Information about Dire Wolves (Canis Dirus)

[Thandi]

Huh. Really i though Dire wolves were still alive today. but i guess its not the case. Anyway thanks for telling me at first i had no idea what a dire wolf looked like. But i am a fan of timber wolves. (i love emotes )

Me neither, I've never seen an acurate picture of a Dire Wolf until now.

[moonshadowwalker]

Thanks for the interesting topic! I think I might of seen part of that documentury.

[shadow4]

i just watched a national geographic prehistoric predators documentary on these things it suggested that they took care of the injured pack members!! . they also hunted a type of horse..not sure what it was called.

[wolfyattitude]

Thanks for the info guys, much apreciated xD

[ScarletMoonlightWolf]

Wow, interesting. Thanks for the info!

[SilverB]

Ok i feel dumb asking this but, what exactly IS a 'Dire Wolf?' what do they look like? i just can't find a good picture of them, i get that they are wolves, but, what are their natural colors, or, what? are there any books on them? i'd like to do a report on them.

[failwolf56]

Ok i feel wonderful asking this but, what exactly IS a 'Dire Wolf?' what do they look like? i just can't find a good picture of them, i get that they are wolves, but, what are their natural colors, or, what? are there any books on them? i'd like to do a report on them.

Hey there SilverB, I believe this might help you out:

Canis dirus, the Dire Wolf, looked much like our modern day wolves, only heavier and with more massive jaws and teeth. It had relatively shorter legs, as well as larger shoulder blades and pelvic bones. The Timber Wolf or Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) of today is leaner, usually weighing between 66 and 145 pounds (29.4 -65.8 kg), whereas Dire Wolves weighed between 125 and 175 pounds (56.7 - 79.4kg).

Source: San Diego Natural History Museum: "Dire Wolves" -->http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/mystery/fg_direwolf.html

[Blightwolf]

A lot of people still seem to be under the impression that dire 'wolves' were basically larger and stronger grey wolves, when more accurately they should be described as larger, stronger version of North American coyotes.

[Maple_fromTheBeyond]

Woah... I knew they were extint or something, but I never knew they were from the ICE AGE!
I heard the Wolves Of The Beyond were Dire Wolves. Maybe they disappeared because of that "dangerous threat on the horizion" I keep hearing about.

...If Faolan can't fulfill his destiny, it could be the end of the wolves of the Beyond.

' I'm kidding...
(sorry for straying off topic...)

[Frodo1]

I have a question. Has there ever been any evidence of grey wolves and dire wolves interbreeding? I know that wolves are capable of breeding with coyotes, and since dire wolves were closely related to coyotes, would it have been possible for them to interbreed?
~Frodo

[Grin]

To answer your question, here is a comment from one site that I found:

As both species preyed on large herbivores, they could not readily coexist, and the gray wolf was relegated to the ice and tundra north of the dire's range. (Fossil evidence suggests that there may have been gray wolf-dire wolf interbreeding, but it was sporadic at best.)

Source: http://wolfology1.tripod.com/id29.htm

These two animals may have had the capacity to interbreed with one another, but they occupied the same ecological niche, meaning that their food sources coincided, forcing them to compete for food. Interbreeding is sporadic because it defies the constant competition that exists among these species. Reproduction is crucial for a species' survival, so by interbreeding, an individual of a species is not benefiting its population as much as it would be if it were to breed with another individual of the same species, especially if they are both competitors. Thus, dire wolves and gray wolves were occupied with the survival of the individuals of their own species. It is highly unlikely that they would ever interbreed. Also, coyote-wolf interbreeding is/was more common because wolves and coyotes generally do not occupy ecological niches that overlap one another as much as those of a dire and gray wolf's. In other words, coyotes and wolves were not competitors, so by interbreeding, they were not giving each other an evolutionary advantage when it came to acquiring food.

Also, the fact that dire wolves became extinct and gray wolves did not means something: gray wolves were able to adapt while dires were not. This is a perfect example of natural selection, which is a process where species better adapted to their environment will succeed and reproduce more efficiently, while species unable to do so go extinct. Therefore, the offspring of a dire wolf-gray wolf pairing would not have as high of a chance of survival when compared to gray wolves.

[MasterSims]

I say a program, maybe on the History Channel or maybe on the Science Channel (possibly Discovery), where they recorded events of the Ice Age. I must admit, I'm not a Teen Vogue or a Seventeen kind of girl so I always watch these kinds of shows. It really interested me on the Dire Wolf and the anatomy, but because that wasn't the focus of the program, I didn't learn much.

Thank you for giving me more on the Extinct Dire Wolf!

[duskypack]

Thats odd, i thought dire wolves were large black "Super wolves", that displays my ignorance.

[alethe]

You have been reading Blackblood Alliance, haven't you?

[WolfNature]

Hi,

I've posted couple of articles about dire wolves in my own website, which is about wolves, but I don't know is it appropriate to post link here. If it is - I will post link directly to my articles. The information is gathered by me from few sources.

Cheers guys, nice forum!