The species, made famous by the show
Game of Thrones, were different from other canine species such as coyotes and grey wolves so much so that they were not able to breed with each other, according to the new research in
The findings disprove earlier research that suggested Dire wolves were related to grey wolves.
For the study, researchers sequenced the DNA of five Dire wolf fossil remains from Wyoming, Idaho, Ohio, and Tennessee dating back more than 50,000 years. Their results show that Dire wolves and grey wolves were in fact very distant relatives.
“The findings show that Dire wolves are not closely related to the modern-day grey wolves, as a lot of people prior to this believed. They actually split from other wolves almost 6 million years ago,” says archaeologist Anna Linderholm, director of the BiG (bioarchaeology and genomics) Laboratory at Texas A&M University.
DNA Reveals Lineage Of Ancient Dire Wolves
Before Dire wolves became extinct about 13,000 years ago, it’s believed they genetically split off from other canids – making them the last of an ancient lineage, according to a team of international researchers including a Texas A&M University expert.
Dire wolves were different from other canine species such as coyotes and grey wolves – so much so that they were not able to breed with each other, according to new research published in the latest issue of
Nature. The findings from Texas A&M archaeologist Anna Linderholm, director of the BiG (bioarchaeology and genomics) Laboratory, and her colleagues disprove earlier research that suggested Dire wolves were related to grey wolves.