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Although most people know of terrible wolves because of their numerous appearances The iron Throne, they did not come directly from the mind of George RR Martin. In fact, scientists have known about the creature that has been extinct since the mid-19th century.
Until recently, it was widely believed that the terrible wolf (The dog darkens) was essentially a more muscular relative of the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), in part because their skeletons look so similar. But a new study published in Nature suggests that the two species share much less than their appearances imply.
It all started when archaeologist Angela Perri of Durham University in the UK set out on an expedition across North America to locate terrible wolf fossils in museum collections and see if she could extract DNA from it. His effort was crowned with success: as National Geographic reports, Perri and colleagues were able to sequence the genomes of five terrible wolf fossils from Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wyoming. The remains date from 50,000 years ago to around 13,000 years ago (when the terrible wolves died).
After comparing the terrible wolf sequences to those of gray wolves and several other canids, the researchers found that terrible wolves and gray wolves genetically diverged from their common ancestor around 5.7 million years ago. As American scientist explains, their morphological resemblance seems to be an example of convergent evolution; in other words, they developed similar traits because their lifestyles were similar and not because their DNA was similar.
Based on these findings, it’s possible that terrible wolves spent millions of years evolving in the Americas, far from gray wolves in Eurasia. In this case, it could have been the eventual migration of other species – even humans – that drove the terrible wolves to extinction.
“The question now becomes: is their extinction linked to climate and environmental change, or humans and potentially other wolves and dogs and [diseases] come and help evict them? Perri said National Geographic.
The study could also have an impact on the scientific classification of the terrible wolf. With a weaker genetic link with the Canis genre, it might be necessary to move it to its own genre. But even if that does happen, there’s a good chance we’ll still call them “terrible wolves” in casual conversation – much like we do with koalas, electric eels, and other animals with misleading nicknames.
[h/t Scientific American]
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