It was earlier thought that the dire wolf was a beefier specimen of the gray wolf, the dire wolf is known as the Canis dirus which means fearsome dog. However, a new complete study, published by Nature, a journal has revealed that they are very different from what they were thought to be.
The extinct wolf species which was an inspiration for the mythical creature which appeared in GOT, the popular, famous, and exciting television show, had very little similarity with the wolves, the gray wolves which can be seen roaming North America currently, according to new research. These prehistoric carnivores used to roam North America before they became extinct around 13,000 years before. The fossils of the dire wolf are the most common fossil extracted from the La Pits located in LA.
The Authentic Dire Wolf
The experts have sequenced the DNA of five fossils of the dire wolf for the 1st time, which used to roam around in Tennessee, Ohio, Idaho and Wyoming respectively. The fossils are above 50,000 years old. Analysis suggests that unlike most of the doglike species that used to migrate between Eurasia and North America over time, these dire wolves originated and evolved only in the plains and hills of North America for around multiple million years.
Angela Perri, lead author, and archaeologist, Durham University, UK told CNN that the earlier narrative was that the dire wolf and gray wolf were closely related such as cousin or sister lineages or like a similar animal. She added that everyone in the academic circle was comfortable and satisfied with that analysis for around 150 years because the similarities and familiarities of both of their skeletons suggested that. Now, the study of genetics has suggested that both these species are distantly related. In fact, they split from each other roughly 6M years ago.
