We May Finally Know How Gray Wolves Survived The Last Ice Age Mass Extinction
The last ice age was a bad time for wildlife.
The world froze, ecosystems changed, and humans and animals competed fiercely for available resources. By 11,700 years ago, as the ice age drew to a close, most of the large mammals roaming what is now the Yukon Territory in Canada had gone extinct; the large herbivores first, quickly followed by the large predators that relied on them for their own survival.
Gray wolves (
Canis lupus) were one of the largest predators to make it through, not just surviving but going on to thrive, their descendants even now skulking through the forests of the Yukon.
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Toronto, April 12
Grey wolves which are among the largest predators to have survived the extinction at the end of the last ice age around 11,700 years ago probably did so by adapting their diet over thousands of years, from a primary reliance on horses during the Pleistocene, to caribou and moose today, says a new study.
The study led by the Canadian Museum of Nature analysed evidence preserved in teeth and bones from the skulls of both ancient (50,000 to 26,000 years ago) and modern grey wolves.
The research team, led by museum palaeontologist Danielle Fraser and student Zoe Landry, published their results in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology .
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