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The Dire Wolf

By dr. dolittle on June 10, 2011.

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Image: La Brea Tar Pits

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Image: ©2010 Betsy Malloy Photography

All that is left of this prehistoric species are bones like those shown above found at the Los Angeles La Brea tar pits. Many of these wolves ended up there as they presumably hunted "easy" prey stuck in the pits and in the process became trapped themselves. In fact, this is the most common species found in the pits suggesting that this was a social species.

I LOVE the National Geographic channel!

According to this special, this is the largest family of dogs that ever lived. In this MUST see episode, the anatomy and physiology of grey wolves and dire wolves are compared to try to figure out why the dire wolves went extinct while the grey wolves survived. The answer may surprise you...

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Life Science

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