Ice Age Dire Wolf Fossil Identified in Canada.

A fossilized jaw bone found in a Canadian museum collection has been formally identified as belonging to a dire wolf, a larger, extinct cousin of the gray wolf with more powerful jaws. The fossil, found in 1969, is the first and only dire wolf found in Canada and the northernmost known occurrence of the species by 500 km. The identification was made difficult due to the poor preservation of the fossil, but multiple measurements and comparisons with known dire wolf fossils confirmed the initial identification. The study adds to the known range of territories the dire wolf inhabited and suggests faunal migrations around the timeframe of the Canadian dire wolf.