Canis etruscus (the Etruscan wolf), is an extinct species of canine that was endemic to Mediterranean Europe and Crimean peninsula during the Early Pleistocene.

Researchers are limited to morphologic analysis but it is difficult to estimate the intra-species and inter-species variations and relationships that existed between specimens across time and place.

The Upper Valdarno Basin has provided the remains of three fossil canid species dated to the Late Villafranchian era of Europe, 1.9–1.8 million years ago, that arrived with a faunal turnover around that time.

[5] One specimen of C. apolloniensis (Koufos and Kostopoulos, 1997[7]) was found in site of Apollonia-1 near the village of Nea Apollonia, Macedonia, in northern Greece.

The large wolf-sized Canis first appeared in the Middle Pliocene about 3 million years ago in the Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, China.

2.5 million years ago its range included the Nihewan Basin in Yangyuan County, Hebei, China, and Kuruksay, Tajikistan.

[23] The dispersal of carnivoran species occurred approximately 1.8 million years ago and this coincided with a decrease in precipitation and an increase in annual seasonality which followed the 41,000-year amplitude shift of Milankovitch cycles.

[20] A description of the Etruscan wolf appears below: Medium-sized dog (average size of a small C. lupus); elongated snout; marked constriction of the snout beyond the infraorbital foramina; elongated nasal bones extending beyond the maxillofrontal suture; well-developed sagittal and nuchal crests; laterally enlarged occipital region; P1-P2-P3 laterally compressed; P1 with lingual cingulum; P3 normally with both posterior and accessory cusp (=modified posterior cingulum); large relative length of the upper molar row (in comparison with C. arnensis); M1 with paracone more elevated than metacone; labial basin of M1 as deep as but larger than the lingual one; M1 and M2 with a continuous cingulum; reduced contact area between M1 and M2.

[5] Definitive specimens are only known from Mediterranean Europe and Crimean peninsula during the Early Pleistocene,[2] though there is one potential skull material identified as C. cf.