The dire wolf (Canis dirus "fearsome dog") is an extinct carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis related to the smaller extant gray wolf. It was most common in North America and South America from the Irvingtonian stage to the Rancholabrean stage of the Pleistocene epoch, living 1.80 Ma—10,000 years ago, persisting for approximately 1.79 million years.
Read more about Dire Wolf: Discovery, Taxonomic History, Evolution and Extinction
Famous quotes containing the words dire and/or wolf:
“Speak, then, my Beauty, to this dire putrescence,
To the worm that shall kiss your proud estate,
That I have kept the divine form and the essence
Of my festered loves inviolate!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“A wolf will walk a thousand miles to eat people: a dog half way to heaven will still eat dung.”
—Chinese proverb.