# How dire is the dire wolf? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814 "2025-04-09T02:38:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/21 "2025-04-09T20:37:25Z")
Invite it in for a game of cards. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/22 "2025-04-09T20:40:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The photos on the Colossal Biosciences website of the puppies make them look really cute. Of course if they’re really wolves, that’s misleading. One photo of two month-old puppies is in [this NPR article](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5355686/dire-wolf-extinct-colossal-biosciences). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/23 "2025-04-09T20:43:50Z")
I mean, to be fair, two-month-old puppies of any species will be really cute. > [@Smapti](#): > > For that matter, Scientific American ran an article a few years back about how dire wolves aren’t wolves at all, and their common ancestor with wolves is about as far back as man’s common ancestor with modern apes. So, really, really close, then? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/24 "2025-04-09T20:45:14Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Aenocyon dirus More related to the African Jackel than a wolf, genus Aenocyon. Wolves are a Canis species. The company edited the DNA from a Grey Wolf to make it pretty white and call it a Dire Wolf, to impress Game of Thrones fans. I’m guessing that they want some investment money. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/25 "2025-04-09T21:20:59Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > More related to the African Jackel than a wolf, genus Aenocyon. Wolves are a Canis species. The company edited the DNA from a Grey Wolf to make it pretty white and call it a Dire Wolf, to impress Game of Thrones fans. > > I’m guessing that they want some investment money. Looks like they already have that (the investment money). And it wasn’t just fans that are impressed. > **[George R.R. Martin got to hold a dire wolf. Extinct animal's 'rebirth...has...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/04/08/george-r-r-martin-dire-wolf-peter-jackson/82995360007/)** > > Author George R.R. Martin got to meet Romulus and Remus, the two dire wolve pups born in October 2024 by Colossal Biosciences. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/26 "2025-04-09T23:55:29Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Of course if they’re really wolves, that’s misleading. Wolf pups are really cute. > [@Chronos](#): > > I mean, to be fair, two-month-old puppies of any species will be really cute. More or less. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/27 "2025-04-09T23:57:35Z")
So I shouldn’t try to adopt that wolf pup I saw in the woods the other day? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/28 "2025-04-10T00:04:00Z")
Maybe, but it wont be easy, and it isnt a good idea- > **[What Happens to Wolves When They're Raised Like Dogs?](https://gizmodo.com/what-happens-to-wolves-when-theyre-raised-like-dogs-1796458238)** > > Wolves and dogs are separated by 15,000 years of evolution, during which time the species have veered off into radically different directions. Dogs still ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/29 "2025-04-10T00:08:54Z")
Damn. I saw that wolf den and thought, “Hey, free purebred puppy.” ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/30 "2025-04-10T00:13:03Z")
Isn’t there an “ask the pet shop guy” thread from a few decades ago about pet wolves? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/31 "2025-04-10T01:14:31Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > More related to the African Jackel than a wolf, genus Aenocyon. I’m interested to see a cite for this. The cladogram on Wikipedia shows the dire wolf equidistant from Canis and African jackals. > **[Dire wolf | DNA evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_wolf#DNA_evidence)** > > DNA evidence indicates the dire wolf arose from an ancestral lineage that originated in the Americas and was separate to genus Canis. > In 1992 an attempt was made to extract a mitochondrial DNA sequence from the skeletal remains of A. d. guildayi to compare its relationship to other Canis species. The attempt was unsuccessful because these remains had been removed from the La Brea pits and tar could not be removed from the bone material. In 2014 an attempt to extract DNA from a Columbian mammoth ... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/32 "2025-04-10T01:52:26Z")
A more accurate statement would be that it’s more distant from modern wolves than jackals are. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/33 "2025-04-10T02:40:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A more accurate statement would be that it’s more distant from modern wolves than jackals are.   That may be, but it’s not supported by the cladogram, which shows a clade containing modern wolves and African jackals, but not dire wolves. Everything in that clade is equidistant from dire wolves. Don’t let its subclades confuse you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/34 "2025-04-10T10:43:27Z")
No, re-read what I wrote: The accurate statement from that cladogram would be that dires are more distant from wolves than jackals are from wolves. Jackals and wolves are part of a clade that does not include dires. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/35 "2025-04-10T11:06:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Wolf pups are really cute. Thank you! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/36 "2025-04-10T11:30:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > re-read what I wrote You’re right. I mixed the word order. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/37 "2025-04-10T14:11:37Z")
Thank you for all of this. Coincidentally I has a student bring up this discussion after I started the thread so we were able to talk about how we still need to be aware of the problem of extinctions because we as of yet cannot truly bring back extinct animals. I pointed out how we are trying to bring back the mastedon but what we will probably get is an elephant with mastedon traits. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/38 "2025-04-10T17:41:18Z")
> [@susan](#): > > It might be a refreshing change of pace. Amen, brother. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/39 "2025-04-10T17:52:37Z")
I have naturally occurring “Dire Siamese cats” Natural, because no one in their right mind would do that on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814/40 "2025-04-10T18:23:13Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > OK, real question. Why were they named Dire Wolves? Not sure if this is any answer but by analyzing the jaw formation they had a higher bite force then modern wolves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dire-is-the-dire-wolf/1016814.md?page=3)