Dire Wolf

"Only now do we know the true story- Megarachne was a giant prehistoric sea scorpion." The following card or its illustration are outdated. When transcribing the information from the card itself, please refrain from updating or changing the text in the process, and leave this for the trivia section.

Dire Wolf
Front Back
Monsters of the Past
Previous	Maiasaura
Next	Entelodonts
Card	91
Creature Features
Species	Canis dirus
Size	Length up to 5 ft.; Height up to 3.5 ft.; Weight up to 200 lbs.
Where?	Fossils have been found in North America
Prey	Large mammals
Body parts	Bone crushing teeth, broad snout, short legs
Did You Know?
Dire wolf bones are the most commonly found fossils in North America.

The dire wolf was a stocky creature, and the biggest "dog" ever to walk on Earth. A cousin to the modern gray wolf, the dire wolf lived side by side with the gray wolf for thousands of years. Bigger isn't always better, however. The dire wolf became extinct about 16,000 years ago, while the gray wolf is still around. Scientists still debate whether this beast was more of a scavenger or predator, and whether it lived more like a hyena than a wolf.

What Big Teeth: This creature's canine teeth were two to three inches long, and were thicker than those of any known canid (dog) in history. When the beast bit into its prey, these teeth were strong enough to rip through muscle and crush the bone underneath.

Dire Difference: The dire wolf looked much like a gray wolf, but was bulkier. Its head was wider, its legs were shorter and its teeth were much thicker. The dire wolf's brain was also smaller than its surviving cousin's, so the dire wolf probably was less intelligent.

Dire Hyena?

Short legs slowed down the dire wolf.

Experts still aren't sure what the dire wolf's main source of food was. There's little doubt that the creature hunted prey in savage packs, as scientists have found wounds on the wolves' bones that came from being trampled by large prey, similar to those wounds found on modern wolves. However, the dire wolf's short legs meant it couldn't run very fast, and its thick teeth look as if they're made to crunch through bone. In fact, wear and tear on dire wolf teeth is similar to that found on some hyenas that mainly scavenge and crunch up bones rather than eat fresh meat from a kill.

Dire End: The dire wolf became extinct 16,000 years ago. Scientists think the wolf ate the dead bodies of large herbivores, and starved when the plant-eaters died out.

The Pits: Fossils of more than 3,600 dire wolves have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits, in Los Angeles, California. Many were found in groups, indicating that the dire wolf traveled in packs.

Timeline

The dire wolf lived 1 million to 16,000 years ago, during the Quaternary Period

Trading Card

Dire Wolf The biggest wolf that ever walked the Earth, this beast had thick teeth that punched through a victim's muscles and crushed their bones. Like modern wolves, the dire wolf hunted in packs to take down large prey. Say What? This beast's fossils were first found in Indiana. Stats Life 120 Attack 6 Defense 4

Trivia

• The sentence in the 'Timeline' Section lacks a period at the end.
• The Saber-Toothed Tiger knowledge card mentions one of their teeth being found lodged in a dire wolf's skull.
• The dire wolf is featured on several Monster Mania cards:
  • It is first featured in Fossil Finders on Monster Mania 56.
    • The skull used for the game is also featured on the back of the knowledge card.
  • It is then featured in Man & Beast on Monster Mania 65.
• The heading "What Big Teeth" is likely a reference to the Little Red Riding Hood tale, specifically due to the line being said to the wolf impersonating red's grandmother.
  • It shares this general reference with Megarachne.
• The dire wolf has been split from the genus Canis, making it Aenocyon dirus. This means that it wasn't a true wolf. Many modern restorations more closely resemble giant jackals and dholes.
  • On April 7, 2025, Colossal Biosciences announced that they had effectively recreated the dire wolf by modifying grey wolves with recovered DNA. The resulting wolves are white, so that was likely the dire wolf's coloration instead of the grey here and the reddish colors most of the aforementioned restorations tended to use.