Sketch Thursday

The Dire Wolf, Canis dirus, was thought to be an extinct carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis , from the Irvingtonian stage to the Rancholabrean stage of the Pleistocene epoch living 1.80 Ma – 10,000 years ago. Although it was closely related to the Gray Wolf and other sister species, Canis dirus was not the direct ancestor of any species known today. Unlike the Gray Wolf, which is of Eurasian origin, the Dire Wolf evolved on the North American continent. The Dire Wolf was one of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna—a wide variety of very large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene. Approximately 10,000 years ago the Dire Wolf nearly became extinct along with most other North American megafauna. Incredibly rare, they have never been seen by modern humans.