dire wolf
noun
: a large extinct wolflike mammal (Aenocyon dirus) known from Pleistocene deposits of North America
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An April 2014 study on dire wolf fossils from La Brea published in Palaeontologica Electronica found that dire wolves shrunk in size as the Ice Age ended, possibly adapting to hunt smaller prey in a warming world.
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Scott Travers, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
Well, Lasher and his dire wolf familiar — oh, Lasher has a dire wolf familiar, by the way — attack.
—Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025
Thousands of years ago, prey animals fell into the seeps, made a ruckus, and attracted predators such as the saber-tooth cat and the dire wolf.
—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 Aug. 2023
But an international team of scientists reported in the journal Nature that the first sequencing of the dire wolf genome showed an unexpectedly large genetic separation between the two species, big enough that the dire wolf is not just a separate species but a separate genus.
—Star Tribune, 28 Jan. 2021
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Scott Travers, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
Well, Lasher and his dire wolf familiar — oh, Lasher has a dire wolf familiar, by the way — attack.
—Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025
Thousands of years ago, prey animals fell into the seeps, made a ruckus, and attracted predators such as the saber-tooth cat and the dire wolf.
—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 Aug. 2023
But an international team of scientists reported in the journal Nature that the first sequencing of the dire wolf genome showed an unexpectedly large genetic separation between the two species, big enough that the dire wolf is not just a separate species but a separate genus.
—Star Tribune, 28 Jan. 2021
See All Example Sentences for dire wolf
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“Dire wolf.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dire%20wolf. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
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