Life-sized dire wolf statue at Dinosaur Valley, Wookey Hole, in Somerset, England (© Dr Karl Shuker)
Larger than today’s grey wolf Canis lupus, the formidable North
American dire wolf C. dirus is famous for the numerous specimens
discovered in California’s La Brea Tar Pits, but it had become extinct around
10,000 years ago. However, there is a remarkable ongoing project dedicated to
achieving a dramatic dire wolf resurrection...of sorts.
Woodward's eagle Amplibuteo woodwardi (a giant North American raptor from the late Pleistocene) vs the dire wolf (© Hodari Nundu aka Justin Case)
A fascinating
breeding program that has been attracting plenty of media attention lately is
the Dire Wolf Project (click here to
visit its official website), launched by the
National American Alsatian Breeder’s Association, because it aims to recreate
within a domestic breed of companion dog the basic dire wolf body, size, and
bone structure. In short, not a true, genetically-restored dire wolf, but
rather a domestic dog that mirrors the dire wolf’s phenotype (external
morphology) as closely as possible.
Alongside dire wolf
statue at Dinosaur Valley, Wookey Hole, in Somerset, England, on 29 August
2010
(© Dr Karl Shuker)
The American
Alsatian, first created in 1987 from matings between original Alsatians (German
Shepherd Dogs) and Alaskan Malamutes and initially referred to as the North
American Shepalute, is itself the first product of this selective breeding
project. However, the project’s continuing long-term plan is to refine its
morphology still further, ever increasing its outward similarity to the genuine
dire wolf, having subsequently introduced Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, English
Mastiffs, and the Great Pyrenees into the breeding mix, because each of these
possesses certain morphological attributes recalling those of the dire wolf.
Artistic
representation of a dire wolf (© Hodari Nundu aka Justin Case)
Conversely, no
dogs with any recent bona fide lupine ancestry have been used, because the goal
is to restore or reconstitute the dire wolf in phenotype only – breeding back the large, round
bones, the massive feet, and the broad head found in the skeletal structure of
dire wolves studied by American palaeontologists – and not this wild
prehistoric species’ behaviour or exact genetic composition. Nevertheless, a domestic dog duplicating the
outward morphology of a bona fide dire wolf will still be a very impressive
creature, to say the least. Of course, there can be no certainty that certain phenotypic aspects, such as fur colouration, density, and texture, will be comparable to those of the dire wolf, because as far as I am aware there are no preserved dire wolf specimens in toto (as there are with woolly mammoths, conversely), only their skeletal components. Even so, it will be most interesting to monitor
the progress of such a novel project - watch this space!
My
mother Mary Shuker alongside a very realistic replica of a dire wolf, at
Dinosaur Valley, Wookey Hole, in Somerset, England, on 29 August 2010 (© Dr Karl Shuker)
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