Bone-Crushing Wolves Once Roamed Alaska

 

 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

This modern gray wolf can't crush bone the way his ancient relatives could.

Bone-crushing wolves that specialized in hunting giant prey once roamed the icy expanses of Alaska, an international team of researchers has found.

The scientists unexpectedly discovered what apparently was a novel subspecies of gray wolf (Canis lupus) as they analyzed genes from skeletal remains that had sat in museum collections for up to a few decades after excavation from Alaskan permafrost deposits.

The ancient DNA, which dated back 12,500 to 40,000 years, did not match any modern wolves, and closer investigation of the bones uncovered remarkable differences

Source: FOXNews.com - Bone-Crushing Wolves Once Roamed Alaska - Science News | Current Articles