Dire Wolf – Canis dirus
Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean)
Rancho La Brea Formation
Maricopa Tar Pits
Kern County, California, USA
Beautiful 59mm maxilla with two molars from the famous Tar Pits of California

Mammal, Canidae, carnivoran.

Canis dirus, the dire wolf, is one of five species of the dog family known from tar pit localities in California. It was about the size of a modern gray wolf but was stockier, shorter-legged, and larger-skulled – an even more formidable predator than the wolves we know today. That’s the kind of carnivore we might expect to survive the ice ages and yet of the five canids, only the dire wolf is extinct.

Canis dirus remains are known from the Americas. It appeared during in the Early Pleistocene and died out around the end of the epoch.

This specimen contains the second and third upper molars. A killer example to have from the tar pits.