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Selected Works of Andrew Ozga
Article
Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage
Nature
  • Angela Perri, Durham University
  • Kieren J. Mitchell, University of Adelaide
  • Alice Mouton, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Sandra Alvarez-Carretero, University of London - Queen Mary and Westfield College
  • Ardern Hulme-Beaman, University of Liverpool
  • Jaimes Haile, University of Oxford
  • Alexandra Jamieson, University of Oxford
  • Julie Meachen, Des Moines University
  • Audrey T. Lin, University of Oxford
  • Blaine W. Schubert, East Tennessee State University
  • Carly Ameen, University of Exeter
  • Ekaterina E. Antipina, Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Pere Bover, Universidad de Zaragoza
  • Selina Brace, Natural History Museum, London
  • Alberto Carmagnini, University of London - Queen Mary and Westfield College
  • Christian Carøe, University of Copenhagen
  • Jose A. Samaniego Castruita, University of Copenhagen
  • James C. Chatters, Applied Paleoscience
  • Keith Dobney, University of Sydney
  • Mario dos Reis, University of London - Queen Mary and Westfield College
  • Allowen Evin, Université de Montpellier
  • Phillippe Gaubert, Université Paul Sabatier
  • Shyam Gopalakrishnan, University of Copenhagen
  • Graham Gower, University of Adelaide
  • Holly Heiniger, University of Adelaide
  • Kristofer M. Helgen, Australian Museum, Sydney
  • Josh Kapp, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Pavel A. Kosintsev, Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Anna Linderholm, University of Oxford
  • Andrew T. Ozga, Nova Southeastern University
  • Samantha Presslee, University of York
  • Alexander T. Salis, University of Adelaide
  • Nedda F. Saremi, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Colin Shew, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Katherine Skerry, Arizona State University
  • Dmitry E. Taranenko, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Mary Thompson, Idaho State University
  • Mikhail V. Sablin, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Yaroslav V. Kuzmin, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Matthew J. Collins, University of Cambridge
  • Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, University of Copenhagen
  • M. Thomas P. Gilbert, University of Copenhagen
  • Anne C. Stone, Arizona State University
  • Beth Shapiro, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Blaire Van Valkenburgh, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Robert K. Wayne, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Greger Larson, University of Oxford
  • Alan Cooper, South Australian Museum, Adelaide
  • Laurent A. F. Frantz, University of London - Queen Mary and Westfield College
Find in your library
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-13-2021
Keywords
  • Evolutionary genetics,
  • Palaeontology,
  • Plylogenetics,
  • Speciation
Disciplines
Abstract

Dire wolves are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America1, yet relatively little is known about their evolution or extinction. Here, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of dire wolves, we sequenced five genomes from sub-fossil remains dating from 13,000 to more than 50,000 years ago. Our results indicate that although they were similar morphologically to the extant grey wolf, dire wolves were a highly divergent lineage that split from living canids around 5.7 million years ago. In contrast to numerous examples of hybridization across Canidae2,3, there is no evidence for gene flow between dire wolves and either North American grey wolves or coyotes. This suggests that dire wolves evolved in isolation from the Pleistocene ancestors of these species. Our results also support an early New World origin of dire wolves, while the ancestors of grey wolves, coyotes and dholes evolved in Eurasia and colonized North America only relatively recently.

ORCID ID
0000-0003-4540-7106
DOI
10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x
Citation Information
Angela Perri, Kieren J. Mitchell, Alice Mouton, Sandra Alvarez-Carretero, et al.. "Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage" Nature Vol. 2021 (2021) ISSN: 0028-0836
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrew-ozga/39/