Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-38669734-20190729201634

The dire wolf (Canis dirus) is an extinct carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis, roughly the size of the extant gray wolf, but with a heavier build. It evolved in North America and later moved into South America. Canis dirus is assigned to the Rancholabrean land mammal age of North America (240,000–10,000 years BP) and was among the many large carnivores and megaherbivores that became extinct in North and South America near the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Salamander Cave in the Black Hills of South Dakota has produced the oldest known fossil of what is thought to be a dire wolf. The site preserves a fauna approximately 252,000 years old, based on uranium-series dating of a horse fossil found there. 