What were Dire Wolves?

Dire Wolf in the Game of Thrones

In the recent television series, the Game of Thrones, one of the scary animals depicted was the 'dire wolf'. This wolf lived during the ice ages in the Americas and was significantly larger than modern wolves. One of the newest branches of science is the sequencing of DNA to discover the origins and migrations of living things throughout history. Until recently scientists thought Dire Wolves were related to modern Eurasian wolves. However studying the DNA of ancient dire wolves shows that they lived in the Americas before modern wolves migrated here. Thus they are not related to wolves, although they are still canines, and actually are not wolves at all.

Dire wolves (reddish color) and modern wolves

In addition dire wolves have no modern decedents like wolves, coyotes or dogs. Eurasian (modern) wolves can interbreed with coyotes and dogs to produce hybrid species. In contrast, we know dire wolves could not interbreed with wolves since they have no living children. Scientists believe dire wolves died out along with the large prey that they hunted, such as camels and woolly rhinos. Since dire wolves were very large and likely very ferocious, we are lucky that the are extinct!

Question: Would you like to see a dire wolf in real life?

Analysis of ancient DNA reveals details about the dire wolf, inspiration for 'Game of Thrones' creature

Dire Wolves Were Not Really Wolves, New Genetic Clues Reveal