Dire Wolves May Have Been Lonely Survivors of an Ancient Lineage – ScienceAlert

The ancient, extinct dire wolf may have been among the lonest of the wolves – so genetically distinct from its closest wolf relative that it could no longer interbreed, forcing it into an evolutionary dead end when it died out 13,000 years ago.
That’s the finding based on a new study, the in-depth analysis of DNA retrieved from ancient dire wolf bones from across North America. Once dire wolves (Canis dirus) diverged from grey wolves millions of years ago, they seem to have never mingled since.
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