Posted on 01/15/2021 5:09:16 PM PST by BenLurkin
When researchers sequenced the extinct predator’s genome, they found it wasn’t a wolf at all but instead a distinct lineage that split off from the rest of the canines some 5.7 million years ago, reports James Gorman for the New York Times.
To reveal the dire wolf’s true evolutionary identity, researchers extracted DNA from five fossils between 13,000 and 50,000 years old and sequenced their genomes. The team ultimately recovered around a quarter of the nuclear genome and a full complement of mitochondrial DNA from the samples...
Though the bones of the dire wolf are so similar to today’s gray wolves that paleontologists sometimes have trouble telling them apart, the genes told an entirely different story when researchers compared them to those of living canine species.
In addition to not being part of the wolf’s evolutionary tribe, the dire wolf DNA also showed that the species’ lineage is separate from the other living branches of the canine evolutionary tree, including African jackals, coyotes and dogs.
To reflect the dire wolf’s now lonely perch on its very own branch of the canine evolutionary tree, researchers propose giving it a new scientific name: Aenocyon dirus. Speaking with Scientific American, Perri admits that the new findings likely won’t cause the whole world to abandon the common name dire wolf.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
They were the Rachel Dolezal of wolves?
Thank you Warren Zevon. Now, our next caller on the “From The Graveyard” line, Lon Cheney.
Maybe it was the Fenris wolf.
Durer wolf:
Maybe it was a Dingo.
Someone discovered giraffes with dwarfism recently in a herd in Africa.
LOL!
600 pounds of sin.
Still a canine though. Right?
History and science is whatever appointed modern experts say it is at any given time. Those are the facts and cannot be deviated. They cannot be questioned. Dire Wolves were not wolves, because we say so. Until it becomes somehow friendly to The Party to proclaim them wolves once again.
I don’t see how the reins on that dire wolf serve any purpose.
Very good!
Hmmmn. Does that make their offspring a Durer-Die wolf?
(The off-colored ones would be a Durer-Dyed Wolf.)
He guides the wolf with his seat and legs :-)
(I remember reading in a book - I believe it was by Barbara Woodhouse - about how she trained a horse on reins made of sewing thread...)
Wargs.
Did it look like a wolf? Did it act like a wolf? IT WAS A WOLF!!!!
Lets don’t bring that one back. 😏
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