The first analysis of dire wolf DNA finds that these ancient predators—a favorite of Game of Thrones fans—are so different from other wolves, coyotes, and dogs as to require an entirely new scientific classification. ScienceMagArchives
fans—emerged as mysteriously as it disappeared. Dire wolves, which died out with mammoths and saber-toothed cats at the end of the last ice age, were long thought to be close cousins of gray wolves. Now, the first analysis of dire wolf DNA finds they instead traveled a lonely evolutionary path: They are so different from other wolves, coyotes, and dogs that they don't belong in the genus that includes these animals.
But that's where most knowledge stops. Because the skeletons of dire wolves are similar to those of gray wolves, the two animals were considered closely related. Scientists have long classified dire wolves as, putting them in the same genus as gray wolves, coyotes, and dogs. But the one thing that could have sealed the deal—dire wolf DNA—had been broken down by the tar of the pits.
genus was left in the historical dust bin, but it can be resurrected," says Xiaoming Wang, a vertebrate paleontologist and expert on ancient canids at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County."Based on the genetic data this team presents, I would support that reclassification."bulky, gray, and ferocious
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