Pleistocene wolf
[9] During the Late Pleistocene glaciation, a vast mammoth steppe stretched from Spain eastwards across Eurasia and over Beringia into Alaska and the Yukon.
The close of this era was characterized by a series of severe and rapid climate oscillations with regional temperature changes of up to 16 °C (29 °F), which has been correlated with megafaunal extinctions.
[10] Ecological factors including habitat type, climate, prey specialization, and predatory competition will greatly influence grey wolf genetic population structure and cranio-dental plasticity.
[17] In 2010, a study compared DNA sequences that were 230 base pairs in length from the mitochondrial control region of 24 ancient wolf specimens from western Europe dated between 44,000–1,200 YBP with those of modern grey wolves.
[6][22] Access into North America was available between 20,000–11,000 years ago after the Wisconsin glaciation had retreated but before the Bering land bridge became inundated by the sea.
Stable isotope analysis conducted on the bone of a specimen allows researchers to form conclusions about the diet, and therefore the ecology, of extinct wolf populations.
[6] In 2013, a mitochondrial DNA sequencing of ancient wolf-like canids revealed another separate lineage of 3 haplotypes (forming a haplogroup) that was found in 3 Late Pleistocene specimens from Belgium; however, it has not been detected in extant wolves.
The short, broad rostrum increased the mechanical advantage of a bite made with the canine teeth and strengthened the skull against torsional stresses caused by struggling prey.
Relatively deep jaws are characteristic of habitual bone crackers, such as spotted hyenas, as well as canids that take prey as large as or larger than themselves.
[32] In 2014, a study of the morphology of wolf remains from Europe dating from the Middle-Late Pleistocene and Holocene indicated that the size of the lower carnassial teeth did not fluctuate directly with changes in climate but possibly with the spread of cold megafauna, and therefore in the dietary regime.
[33] In 2015, a study looked at specimens of all of the carnivore species from Rancho La Brea, California, including remains of the large canine Aenocyon dirus, that was also a megafaunal hypercarnivore.
The most common coat pattern found in modern wolves is agouti, in which the upperside of the body has banded hairs and the underside exhibits lighter shading.
This result suggests a common origin for dominant yellow in dogs and white in wolves but without recent gene flow, because this clade was found to be basal to the golden jackal and genetically distinct from all other canids.
The study concludes that during the Late Pleistocene, natural selection laid the genetic foundation for modern coat colour diversity in dogs and wolves.
Compared with the extant grey wolves, the Pleistocene wolf was hypercarnivorous, with a craniodental morphology more capable of capturing, dismembering, and consuming the bones of very large mega-herbivores.
[37] A vast mammoth steppe stretched from Spain across Eurasia and over the Bering land bridge into Alaska and the Yukon, where it was stopped by the Wisconsin glaciation.
[38] During the Last Glacial Maximum, the continent of Europe was much colder and drier than it is today, with polar desert in the north and the remainder steppe or tundra.
[29] As of 2020, the oldest known intact wolf remains belongs to a mummified pup dated 56,000 YBP that was recovered from the permafrost along a small tributary of Last Chance Creek near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
[42] Another study of the Lake Taimyr wolf found that its comparatively small size and characters of the cheekteeth and skull raised the possibility that it might have been a domesticated or semi-domesticated animal.
The specimens were compared to wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) fossils found near Burnberg, Germany, and near the Paleolithic site of Kostenki 1 on the Don River near Voronezh, Russia.
"Notably, the Pleistocene C. lupus from eastern Beringia, by the skull shape, tooth wear and isotopic data, is also reconstructed as a specialized hunter and scavenger of extinct North American megafauna.
We will be comparing it to modern-day wolves to understand how the species has evolved and to reconstruct its appearance,' said an excited Albert Protopopov, from the Republic of Sakha Academy of Sciences.
[44] In May 2015 a study was conducted on a partial rib-bone of a wolf specimen (named "Taimyr-1") found near the Bolshaya Balakhnaya River in the Taimyr Peninsula of Arctic North Asia, that was AMS radiocarbon dated to 34,900 YBP.
The sample provided the first draft genome of the cell nucleus for a Pleistocene carnivore, and the sequence was identified as belonging to Canis lupus.
[45] Using the Taimyr-1 specimen's radiocarbon date, its genome sequence and that of a modern wolf, a direct estimate of the genome-wide mutation rate in dogs / wolves could be made to calculate the time of divergence.
[4] In Britain, Canis lupus was the only canid species present from MIS 7 (243,000 YBP), with the oldest record from Pontnewydd Cave in north Wales.
A study of Pleistocene C. lupus in Britain at different time periods found that its abilities to crush, slice meat and eat bone highlighted its cranio-dental plasticity.
[53] Prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, Japan was colonized by a lineage of the Siberian Pleistocene wolf via a land bridge between the Korean Peninsula and Honshu.
[2] DNA analysis indicates that dogs originated from a Pleistocene wolf lineage separate from living Eurasian and North American wolves.
[56] Most dogs form a sister group to the remains of a Late Pleistocene wolf found in the Kessleroch cave near Thayngen in the canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, which dates to 14,500 years ago.
