Dire Wolf
Early in 2025 American news media pounced on a story: The Return of the Dire Wolf. Details of this remarkable piece of journalism are explained in a remarkable Wikipedia article: Dire wolf. Be sure to see the final section of the article.
Actually, real dire wolves roamed America from about 250,000 years ago until about 10,000 years ago. The image shown here, proportioned to precisely measured skeletal remains, is probably as accurate as any ever drawn. The dire wolf looked much like the modern grey wolf but was about 25% larger. I thank Mark Hallett for permission to show this image. Hallett is well known for his work in paleoart. Among his many accomplishments, he was chosen by Stephen Spielberg to help create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. See Mark Hallett: Capturing the Essence of Prehistoric Life.
The Evansville Dire Wolf
The type specimen for the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus - a mix of Greek (dreadful + dog) and Latin (fearsome) was found in Evansville, Indiana. Late in the summer of 1854 Francis A. Linck found the specimen in the bed of the Ohio River. At that time, the depth of the river averaged about eleven feet lower than today. Linck found the specimen near the mouth of Pigeon Creek and a short walk from downtown Evansville. Although Linck refused to let Dr. Norwood of nearby New Harmony send the fossil to Dr. Joseph Leidy in Philadelphia, he died on 28 August 1854, and his family granted Dr. Norwood's wish. Dr. Leidy determined that the fossil represented a new species of wolf, and the name - Canis dirus Leidy - became official in 1858, until, in 2021, it was changed to Aenocyon dirus.)
the Ohio River, where the type specimen of the dire wolf was found.
Courtesy of Willard Library, Evansville.
Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
It was my good fortune to find that Dr. Norwood's letters to Dr. Leidy have survived in Philadelphia. I obtained copies and found Dr. Norwood's handwriting neat, heavy, and easy to read. Dr. Norwood, it turned out, was the first state geologist of Illinois, and he worked closely with Dr. Owen, also of New Harmony, who was the first state geologist of Indiana. For an article about these two medical doctors who became geologists, beginning with an account of the Evansville dire wolf; see "David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood: Pioneer Geologists in Indiana and Illinois".
Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
The drawings of bones found by Linck, made by John Chappellsmith are not mentioned in Leidy's publications. It appears that they no longer exist. Although Henry Pratten, is mentioned in Norwood's letter, he appears to have had not recorded connections with Linck's findings. Pratten was Norwood's assitant in New Harmony and Illinois. He is mentioned in Norwood's letters to Leidy on a variety of subjects, both before and after the letter that appears here.
Earliest publications
The first publication to describe the "new" extinct species was written by Joseph Leidy, M.D. It appeared in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 1854-1855, vol. 7, pp.195-201, dated November 1854, under the heading Notice of some Fossil Bones discovered by Mr. Francis A. Lincke [sic], in the banks of the Ohio River, Indiana. "The bones are usually found in this locality sticking in the bank, when the water in the river is low." Leidy continues, "The collection contains bones of the following animals:—:" Megalonyx Jeffersonii [giant ground sloth, extinct], Bison Americanus (?), Cervus Virginianus (common American deer), Equus Americanus (American horse, extinct), Tapirus Haysii (tapir, extinct), and Canis Primævus. It is with the latter name that Leidy introduces the species now known by the common name dire wolf. He recognizes that other naturalists could assert that Canis Primævus is within the compass of the previously established species canis lupus. He also devotes a paragraph to the general question of origin of species, "whether from a single pair or from a plural stock, whether by ascent from the lowest for of life, in gradually diverging series ...", an interesting digression published five years before Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Leidy concludes the article with a table of eight dental measurements from five species of Canis; in all eight, the measurements for Canis Primævus. exceed the others.The second publication, which cites the first, appears in Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Here, Leidy repeats the content of the Journal article and adds a few details and notes regarding the origin of species. His third publication, in an article, "Notice of remains of extinct vertebrata, from the Valley of the Niobrara River...[1857], Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, comments, at the end of a discussion of a different species of wolf found in Nebraska, that "the name canis primævus was inadvertently applied" [because another species had already been given that name], and that the name should be changed to canis dirus. This taxon survived for more than 160 years, to be replaced in 2021 by the present taxon, Aenocyon dirus.
Dire wolves at the La Brea Tar Pits
This section pending. Will include this reference: "The Asphalt Group of Fossil Skeletons: The Tar-Pits of Rancho-La-Brea, California, by W. D;. Matthew, in The American Museum Journal, vol. XIII, No. 7, Nov 1913, pp. 291-297.
Painted by Robert Bruce Horsfall, 1911
Used by permission.
Used by permission.
Colossal dire wolves
Among the world's most widely publicized wolves are Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi. Although publicized as dire wolves, the three are actually genetifcally modified grey wolves. As part of a de-extinction project, Romulus and Remus were born on 1 October 2024, and Khaleesi, on 30 January 2025. During April 2025, USA Today published several articles, some occupying a full page, with headlines like "Dire wolf brought back from extinction". Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi have their own Wikipedia page: Colossal Biosciences Dire Wolf Project.
Recent research based on dire wolf fossils
An article published in 2021 in Nature concludes that dire wolves originated in the New World, in contrast to unlike to grey wolves, which originated in Eurasia. See Angela R. Perri, Kieren J. Mitchell, and others, Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage.
Another article published in 2021 notes that "The dire wolf was one of the successful top predators in North America during the Pleistocene. It is best known from the southern part of North America, and it even immigrated to South America. Fossils of dire wolves are very rare north of 42 degrees North latitude in North America. That distribution supported the belief that the low temperatures and ice sheets in the higher latitudes of North America formed an insurmountable barrier for the dispersal of dire wolves. Here [however], we report the first record of the dire wolf in Eurasia."
Dire wolves and other Pleistocene mammals are thought to have crossed the Beringia Land Bridge between North America and Asia. The fossil of a dire wolf in Eurasia was found in an underwater sand mine site in the Songhua River, near the city of Harbin, in the northernmost province of China. For details, see Dan Lu, Yangheshan Yang, Qiang Li, and Xijun Ni, "A late Pleistocene fossil from Northeastern China is the first record of the dire wolf in Eurasia".
